Kyle Munson

kmunson@dmreg.com

LEWIS, Ia. — Barry Jurgensen took the long, sweaty way to Lewis.

Except for the Missouri River crossing and a wagon ride, he walked the 87 miles from Nebraska City to arrive five days later, on Sunday afternoon, at the Hitchcock House just outside of town.

And he had a nasty blister on his right heel to show for it. I watched Jurgensen, a 32-year-old history teacher from a small school district in Arlington, Nebraska, collapse on the floor of the visitors’ center and gulp a bottle of water. Then he was cradled there by his farmer father (also named Barry) while friend Joey Knoell from Freemont, Nebraska, wielded a tiny pin to lance his blister, which had swelled to the size of a quarter.

Onlookers joked that the ooze would fill a shot glass. Everybody was simultaneously enthralled and repulsed as the blister-popping — not to mention Jurgensen’s every wince — was chronicled from multiple camera angles.

I stood there and thought that grading papers must be absolute drudgery if this is the way the teacher chooses to begin his summer "vacation": a 527-mile trek on foot to Chicago under the banner of what he's calling "Walk Forever Free."

But then I suppose if Jurgensen was clocking these miles on a bicycle, few if any Iowans would consider it strange.

The ginger-bearded Jurgensen and his allies are tracing the route of a pair of enslaved teenage African-Americans, or "freedom seekers," named Eliza and Celia who in 1858 fled from Nebraska City to Chicago. These girls’ escape drama should be a movie. (I’m looking at you, Matthew McConaughey, with your new Civil War-era historical drama “Free State of Jones” about to hit theaters).

Both girls eventually were lost to history. Eliza last appears in records in 1860 as the housekeeper at a brothel in downtown Chicago. A mob of sympathizers in the street protested when her owner, Stephen F. Nuckolls, tried (and ultimately failed) to recapture her.

Nuckolls had put a $200 reward on the girls' heads. By contrast, Jurgensen hopes to raise $50 per mile for the Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives in its campaign against human trafficking. In that way, he’s connecting African-American slavery in the United States with the modern slavery of millions around the globe, particularly the sex trafficking of children. Eliza and Celia likely were victims of sexual assault.

Jurgensen is stopping at history museums (or even sleeping in them) and schools along his route, as well as what structures of the Underground Railroad remain. He speaks Saturday at the State Historical Museum in Des Moines.

Talking history and human trafficking in a barn

Much was different on the Iowa prairie in 1858. I don't think Terry Branstad was governor. Iowa State University was founded that year, but I doubt anybody cared because it was more than a decade before the first college football game.

But the Hitchcock House already stood proud on this scenic hill that overlooks the East Nishnabotna River. It was built in 1856 by the Rev. George B. Hitchcock, a Congregational minister and staunch abolitionist.

I’ve followed the fortunes of this National Historic Landmark, also one of at least 17 sites in Iowa included on the National Park Service’s “Network to Freedom” program designed to preserve the history of the Underground Railroad. One of my ancestors, Henry Wissler, reportedly helped Hitchcock usher freedom seekers through here.

Jurgensen got hooked on history in part through his work with the National Park Service before he entered the classroom. He has maintained that link as he and his students have been the driving force behind eight of the applications for Network to Freedom sites in Iowa, plus work in other states.

So he stood inside the barn Sunday on the Hitchcock House grounds, his socks and sneakers temporarily swapped for a pair of more forgiving flip-flops. He said that the best feeling he ever has as a teacher is to watch his students' sheer joy when they unearth some long-lost name or factoid from the historical record.

It's probably no surprise that Jurgensen was named Nebraska’s 2014 History Teacher of the Year and has cultivated a reputation for active learning. For instance, he taught his students ancient warfare by having them build their own Roman "scutums," or shields, and then marching in formation through the gymnasium in the mock rescue of a general from the battlefield while pelted from the sides by a rain of dodge balls.

Jurgensen was raised as the second-oldest of four siblings on a farm outside of Schleswig, Iowa. His dad said that he “wasn’t too hopped up” on his son’s scheme to walk to Chicago. But he left the farm behind this week to join his son as support driver.

Austin Harms considered his walk alongside his former teacher to be part social activism, part preparation for entering Marines boot camp in September.

Another former student, 16-year-old Tierra Krivohlavek, iced her knees and tended to a strained hip flexor at the Hitchcock House.

Jurgensen and Doug Jones, an archaeologist with the State Historical Society of Iowa, spent two solid hours in front of a crowd of about 50 people on folding chairs inside the barn talking about both abolitionist history in Iowa in general and Walk Forever Free in particular.

Jurgensen made the case that "trafficking" is too euphemistic for what really should be called slavery. It's also not every day in a western Iowa barn that you hear effusive praise for Jimmy Carter, but the former president's work to end modern slavery and similar abuses was mentioned more than once.

"Eliza and Celia have been with me for a really long time," Jurgensen said. "I really could never let their story go."

He won't be able to let go at least for the next month, as this epic pedestrian abolitionist sweats it out in the summer sun, with the scourge of slavery chafing at him as much as the blisters on his feet.

Kyle Munson can be reached at 515-284-8124 or kmunson@dmreg.com. See more of his columns and video at DesMoinesRegister.com/KyleMunson. Connect with him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (@KyleMunson) and on Snapchat (@kylemunsoniowa).

NOTE: This column has been corrected to indicate that the Missouri River separates Nebraska and Iowa. Kyle really can read a map.

Walk Forever Free schedule

Friday, June 10, 4 p.m.: Meet Barry Jurgensen at the Jordan House, 2001 Fuller Road, West Des Moines.

Saturday, June 11, 7:30 a.m.: Join Jurgensen for the 7-mile walk (mostly on Grand Avenue) from the Jordan House to the State Historical Museum of Iowa, 600 E. Locust St. Walkers should register on-site and be ready to leave by 8 a.m.; participants under 18 years old must be accompanied by an adult.

Saturday, June 11, 1 p.m.: Hear Jurgensen, Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives President Kenneth Morris and other leaders speak about the Walk Forever Free project during a gathering at the State Historical Museum of Iowa, which culminates Iowa Museum Week.

DAILY STOPS: IOWA

June 1: Tabor

June 2: Hastings

June 3: Red Oak

June 4: Elliott

June 5: Lewis

June 6: Cumberland

June 7: Greenfield

June 8: Winterset

June 9: Badger Creek State Park

June 10: West Des Moines

June 11: Des Moines

June 12: Mitchellville

June 13: Newton

June 14: Grinnell

June 15: Brooklyn

June 16: Marengo

June 17: F.W. Kent County Park

June 18: Iowa City

June 19: Tipton

June 20: Dixon

June 21: DeWitt

June 22: Clinton

DAILY STOPS: ILLINOIS

June 23: Morrison

June 24: Sterling/Rock Falls

June 25: Dixon

June 26: Ashton

June 27: Rochelle

June 28: DeKalb

June 29: St. Charles

June 30: Wheaton

July 1: Maywood

July 2: Chicago