Following the Hidden Trails: Replicating Blended History - Nature Programs in Any Community

How can environmental educators use local landscapes to illuminate complex historical narratives and empower youth as place-based storytellers? This session shares the development of Hidden Trails: Nature’s Role in the Underground Railroad, a weeklong youth program in Quincy that integrated site-based UGRR history, ecological exploration, and creative interpretation. Over five days, participants visited regional UGRR museums and historic homes; explored streams, forests, and navigation strategies used by freedom seekers; analyzed archival documents; and created their own outdoor interpretive signs for a “Freedom Pathways” trail exhibit. This session outlines the program design, community partnerships, and sequencing that made the experience successful and offers a framework for adapting similar nature–history programs to any region. Attendees will participate in a “My Place Mapping Sprint” to begin identifying the ecological features and cultural histories in their own areas that can serve as foundations for locally grounded, interdisciplinary youth programs.