Last week Andy Harris and Rep. Richard Hanna of New York introduced federal legislation (H.R. 4007) to create the Harriet Tubman National Historic Park on the Eastern Shore and in Auburn, New York. While it’s the “companion” legislation of a bill introduced last year by Senator Cardin (S.247), there is a key difference: the House bill specifically excludes federal funds from being expended on the creation of the park.
Personally I could live without there being a National Historical Park in my backyard, but there are many in the area who would like to preserve the heritage of Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad. And having said that, it’s interesting to note that Ben Cardin and Barbara Mikulski (along with the two Senators from New York) believe the federal government has $7.5 million lying around just to help make this park a reality. I don’t see it.
As Rep. Hanna puts it in his release:
The National Historical Park in Maryland will trace Tubman’s early life on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, where she was born and later escaped from slavery to become one of the leaders on the Underground Railroad. The National Historical Park in New York will be located in Auburn and commemorates the later years of her life where she was active in the women’s suffrage movement and in providing for the welfare of aged African Americans.
In New York, the Harriet Tubman National Historical Park would include important historical structures in Auburn, including Tubman’s home, the Home for the Aged that she established, the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Zion Church, and the Fort Hill Cemetery where she is buried.
To facilitate consideration in the House, and in keeping with House rules and protocol, the bill does not authorize new federal appropriations, but allows for state, local, and private funds to be used to finance the parks.
Of course, the Daily Times, which rarely misses a chance to take a swipe at Andy Harris, bemoans the fact that no federal funds are being expended in the House version (which, by the way is being co-sponsored by fellow Maryland representatives Donna Edwards, Roscoe Bartlett, Elijah Cummings, and Chris Van Hollen, along with Hanna and four other representatives from New York.) But that doesn’t necessarily mean the House version will be the one which passes, and we may be stuck with another $15 million tab on a scattered-site park few will visit but adjacent property owners would likely rue for the restrictions sure to come. Just ask this landowner about her experience.
There are already plans afoot to create the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park and the federal government has been sniffing around the area for about a dozen years. You may recall that land in that area was originally slated to be a large development but instead was purchased by the state when anti-growth zealots convinced the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy to purchase 323 acres near the Blackwater Wildlife Refuge; in turn, the state paid $2.8 million to them. The 17 acres the Visitor Center would sit on were once part of Blackwater. So it turns out what the state can’t browbeat other private interests into selling off, they may well secure in the name of “historic preservation.” Because the park would be a number of scattered sites, the footprint of its influence would be much larger – sad thing is that we don’t actually know where Tubman was born, as her ancestral home has long since been lost to the elements and subsequent development.
My impression, though, is that Harris and Hanna were trying to promote a “third way” where the park would be created but it would be funded by those who would be best positioned to use and enjoy it. While that makes financial sense, I would be more supportive if the bill expressly protected the interests of adjacent landowners in both Maryland and New York from the overarching reach of the federal government. Until then, there are already plans to create the state park within the Blackwater Refuge and I can live with that, since the state has already invested in that endeavor – there’s no need to get the federal government involved.