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REPORTED STATIONS

The vast majority of the sites reported as having been associated with Underground Railroad activity in Wisconsin have yet to be documented sufficiently to meet the verification criteria established by the National Park Service. They are identified in the following list with a "U." Sites that have received Park Service verification are marked with a "V."


Fond du Lac County

Ripon. The birthplace of the Republican Party in 1854 and in 1860 the principal site of the violent confrontation between followers of Sherman Booth and Federal marshals, Ripon has long been reported as a station of the Underground Railroad in Wisconsin. Caves under Ripon's main street, thought to have been used as both a sanctuary and an escape route, are now being investigated by the Fond du Lac County Speleological Society.

Willard Pond Farm, Alto Township. James B. Pond, the nation's premier impressario during the latter decades of the Nineteenth Century and a Civil War Medal of Honor recipient, reported in his 1903 autobiographical book, Eccentricities of Genius, that he assisted his father in operating a station of the Underground Railroad on the Pond farm between 1847 and 1853. [Fairwater Historical Society and Kevin Dier-Zimmel]

Rock County

Milton House, Milton. Constructed as a stagecoach inn in 1847 by Joseph Goodrich, the octagon-shaped building features a basement tunnel thought to have been used as an escape route when slave catchers were in the vicinity. [Milton Historical Society]

Walworth County:

Rev. Solomon Ashley Dwinnell Residence, Spring Prairie. Sanctuary for Caroline Quarrels during her 1842 escape. [J. N. Davidson, Negro Slavery in Wisconsin and the Underground Railroad, 1897]