secretary for land resources at the state Department of Natural Resources. "It's been piecemeal putting this together over several years."

The 15,000-square-foot visitor center will house an exhibit hall and interactive displays, with walking trails and a spiritual reflection garden on the grounds.

"It's been a long time coming," said Clara Small, a history professor at Salisbury University who has studied Tubman and African-American history on the Eastern Shore. "We're cognizant of the fact that the state has no money. The federal government has no money. So it's just relief and joy to know that it's finally happening."

Tubman was born a slave in Dorchester County circa 1820. She escaped slavery when she was 27, and for more than a decade acted as a conductor on the Underground Railroad, a networkof abolitionists who ferried slaves northward toward freedom. Accounts estimate that she made more than 10 trips back to Maryland to rescue other slaves from bondage. Tubman later served as a spy during the Civil War. She died in New York in 1913

"Harriet Tubman was willing to work through the darkness and the cruelty of her time to move her neighbors forward and her country forward," said Gov. Martin O'Malley, a Democrat, in announcing the funding at the museum. "There is no more powerful story."

Donald Pinder, president of the Harriet Tubman Organization, which operates the museum and has pushed for the state park and visitor center, said he hopes the project helps push forward other efforts that have stalled.

In 2009, the National Park Service endorsed a plan to