RAGBRAI 2024 riders stop at Underground Railroad house in Lewis

LEWIS — Victoria Boyd stood at the bottom of a steep hill in Lewis, a transit town on Day 2 of RAGBRAI, when she had a decision to make: Continue into the town of 361 and join the party, or take a detour to visit one of Iowa’s few remaining Underground Railroad stations.

Boyd, 45, was far from her hometown of Las Vegas — and at that moment, from where she stood, far from the Hitchcock House. She dismounted her bike and snapped a quick photo of the venue’s sign towering above the sprawling lawns around her. Joking with a friend and fellow cyclist, she nearly backed out when she saw the rocky road ahead.

But she walked on, her bicycle next to her.

“Iowa is beautiful,” she said, looking up at the endless blue sky.

Boyd, who is participating in her fifth RAGBRAI, was one of dozens of people who made the detour early Monday afternoon to tour the historic home, which is just over a mile from Lewis town center.

Built in 1856 by the Rev. George Hitchcock, the congressional minister established the home for three reasons, said Mary Hoegh, who later gave Boyd and many others a tour. She said Hitchcock, who initially welcomed “Freedom Seekers” to his log cabin, decided to build the house that still stands on a hill overlooking the city to provide shelter and protection for slaves.

Hoegh said the cabin no longer accommodated his growing family and he needed more space for his congregation.

The house, located at 63788 567th Lane, is a National Historic Landmark and is on the Register of National Historic Places, as well as the National Park Service Network to Freedom. It was one of the destinations on last year’s inaugural Iowa Underground Railroad Ride, a two-and-a-half-day journey to Lewis from Tabor, another surviving rail station site in southwestern Iowa.

According to state historians, Fremont and Mills counties were the sites of most Underground Railroad activity in Iowa. The counties, they explained, were a hub for enslaved people fleeing western Missouri. Southeast Iowa was also a stopover for enslaved Americans from northeastern Missouri traveling to the Mississippi and Illinois.

Those historical bits were enough for Malcolm native Farren Johnson to climb the same rocky hill as Boyd.

“The history of Iowa is really cool,” said Johnson, 35, who is in her third year at RAGBRAI. “You don’t always know a lot (about) why people came (here), and I just think it’s really cool that we have a place here that was part of the Underground Railroad.”

Johnson grew up just 40 minutes away from Lewis and says she’s never heard of the Hitchcock House.

“I didn’t even know this existed. So as an adult, it’s really cool to find it and go see it,” said Johnson, who rode RAGBRAI solo and explored the state’s unique spots. “It’s just, I don’t know, just a really cool piece of history.”

F. Amanda Tugade covers social justice issues for the Des Moines Register. Email her at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @writefelissa.