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Attractions
In the Walls family cemetery there are approximately 40 family members, friends and fugitive slaves buried. At the back of the cemetery marks the resting place of John,who was born a slave on the Walls plantation in North Carolina in 1813. John escaped following the Underground Railroad to Canada where he became a freeman. The rest of his life in Puce, Ontario Canada he was known as John "Freeman" Walls. John passed away in 1909 at the age of 96, his wife Jane King Walls passed away a year later at 88.
Walls Family Cemetary
Historic Walkway
The Historic walkway is similar to what what a fugitive had to contend with. The over grown brush, thorn trees and the sound of blood hounds not far behind. Fugitives had to run by night and hide by day, and at times they even had to kneel down and drink from the hoofprints of cattle in order to quench their thirst.
This Peace Chapel was built in honor of Mrs.Rosa Parks, Mother of the modern Civil Rights Movement. Before her death in 2005 She would visit the site each year with a group of students who are part of her Pathways to Freedom Educational Program and attend celebrations at the Historic Site. The large cross on the wall is made from bricks, which where part of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis Tennessee, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. The cross was made to honour this great hero of the Civil Rights Movement.
Peace Chapel
Simcoe Building
This Two story log cabin was built in 1798. The building was donated to the historic site by the Ministry of Natural Resources. This log cabin is dedicated to the memory of John Graves Simcoe who was the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada. In 1793 the First Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada, passed Canada's first anti-slavery law. This legislation did not outlaw slavery but harnessed it: it outlawed the buying of new slaves, and immediate freedom was granted to those slaves who outlived their masters. This eventually led to the abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire by 1834
Historic Walk Way
Homestead of John Freeman Walls
This is the focal point of this site, the John Freeman Walls log cabin. This two storey log cabin was built in 1846 on a foundation of four rocks. The original floor was clay but later wood floors and siding were added over the years. John and his wife Jane raised nine children here.
John never allowed any pictures taken of himself because he was afraid of being discovered and taken back south and enslaved again. In 1985 the Detroit-Windsor Police composite artist interviewed Aunt Stella and Frank Walls and created a picture of what John looked like from their discription. This picture is found inside the log cabin.
Freedom Train
In 1984 the Canadian Pacific Railroad donated a flat bed rail car to the museum. Dr. Bryan E. Walls O.Ont.,Allen Walls and Winston Walls with their children laid the track, then after the flat car was in place they designed and built the train caboose. The caboose being the end of the train symbolizes the end of the Undergound Railroad.
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