LOCKPORT, N.Y. — Nearly 200 years ago, downtown Lockport once served as a part of the path to freedom.
Now, New York State wants to preserve and remember that path so others can see it.
On Wednesday night, the Lockport Common Council voted unanimously to approve a resolution that would support the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Corridor Scenic Byway, which would cut through the city.
The scenic byway is an effort by the state to connect 34 key historical sites across 21 New York counties, stretching 500 miles from New York City to Niagara Falls, and highlighting some of the landmarks that were a part of the Underground Railroad that thousands used to reach freedom.
Each municipality — including Niagara Falls, Buffalo and Lockport, which will represent Western New York — has to vote to approve joining in on the initiative.
“The Black families that were here back in the day, they built Lockport, and to have Harriet Tubman come through Lockport, it just makes it so much more incredible for our history and for the opportunities for the future of our children, so I'm looking forward to it,” Lockport Mayor John Lombardi III said.
The path will be as close as possible to the route that Tubman and the slaves took. However, it will not include the railroads and waterways that were included in their actual path.
If approved, this scenic byway will become the fifth in New York and the longest, joining the Great Lakes Seaway Trail, the Lakes to Locks Passage, the Mohawk Towpath Byway, and the Palisades Scenic Byway.
After each municipality approves their section of the byway, it will have to be passed as an amendment to state highway law by the state legislature in Albany.