When runaway slaves came to Cayuga County 150 years ago seeking freedom through the Underground Railroad, they traveled in secret and under darkness.

With the help of a network of dedicated abolitionists, they found safe havens in local homes where residents risked much by aiding the cause.

Today, visitors and locals can retrace those perilous journeys in broad daylight.

Thanks in part to a federal grant and years of information gathered by experts and historians, a local design firm has put together a drivable tour of the dozens of Underground Railroad sites in Auburn and Cayuga County.

The tours are part of a new Web site called Following the Freedom Trail, which offers maps and explanations of almost 40 local people and places that were part of the famous network that went from the southern United States to Canada.

The tours include many of the well-known historic sites in and around Auburn, with some facts about their connection to the Underground Railroad.

The home of Auburn resident and U.S. Secretary of State William Seward harbored escaped slaves, according to accounts from Seward himself. And Harriet Tubman, whose home is on the south end of Auburn, was often called the Moses of her people.

But most of the locations on the tour maps are not associated with people often read about in school history books.

Isaac Cady and John Stoyell took people hidden beneath blankets on wagon trips from the Cady Tavern in Moravia to Skaneateles.

Port Byron Hotel owner Richard Dyer hired “freedom seekers” to work for him, even though it was against federal law to harbor people who escaped slavery.

The Web site was created through a $5,000 matching grant awarded to the city in 2006 by the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Funds from the grant also went toward a 2007 conference and 200th birthday anniversary celebrating Auburnian, abolitionist and women's rights activist Martha Coffin Wright, whose one-time safe house is also on the tour.

Christina Selvek, Auburn's director of capital projects and grants, said many of the area's experts on the Underground Railroad and women's rights gathered the information that was discussed at the conference and ended up on the Freedom Trail site.

The tour maps help make that information more user friendly, Selvek said.

“It's nice to have that visual link,” she said.

The site was designed by Laura Coburn, of Auburn firm Coburn Design. Coburn said she worked closely with history experts such as SUNY Oswego professor Judith Wellman, Seward House Director Peter Wisby and other historians to gather the information.

“I knew from living here 22 years that this area was very rich in Underground Railroad history, but I was mightily surprised when I saw how many sites there were,” she said.

Coburn said she believes the driving tour is a unique way to experience local history, and she said the maps help give tourists a “leg up” in creating that experience that a long list of sites would not. People can visualize the location of these sites while using their own imagination to recreate the experiences of others, she said.

“You're putting yourself in the spot, and imagining what it must have been like on that trail,” Coburn said.

Staff writer Christopher Caskey can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or christopher.caskey@lee.net.