In 1852 in tiny Napoleon, William Love and William Howe bought a brick tavern, built in 1832 and, like many new owners made some modifications to the design. But unlike other owners, the changes these two dedication abolitionists made included a trap door that dropped ten vertical feet to a hidden and otherwise inaccessible room in the basement.

Love renamed the brick building, aging even then, the Rail Road House Hotel in what can only be seen as a contemptuous gesture towards the slave seekers. The only railroad in the small town of Napoleon was the UGRR.

“There was a dead space between two walls and then a hidden room and tunnel on the south side of the building that no one knew about,” says Helen Einhaus, former Ripley County Historian, who with Diane Perrine Coon, helped create the driving tours. “Unfortunately, though the tunnel and room are still there, the building is now a restaurant and the owners can’t let people in the basement.”