Harriet Tubman Park Gets $1.2M From Park Service

BALTIMORE (AP) -- A nearly $1.2 million National Park Service grant will help develop outdoor recreation facilities in Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park on the Eastern Shore.

Sens. Benjamin Cardin and Barbara Mikulski and Rep. Frank Kratovil announced the grant from the park service's Land and Water Conservation Fund on Monday.

Maryland expects to begin site development at the 17-acre site late next year and finish in 2011.

Tubman was born in Dorchester County, where she spent nearly 30 years as a slave before escaping in 1849. She later led hundreds of slaves to freedom as part of the anti-slavery resistance network known as the Underground Railroad.