former slave was born and led dozens to freedom on the Underground Railroad.

While her story is taught to schoolchildren across the country and a small storefront museum here pays homage to Tubman, descendants and historians have been waiting to see her memorialized in a grander fashion. The state announced Tuesday that it had secured enough money for a state park and visitor center bearing Tubman's name, cheering advocates for the long-planned project. It is slated for completion in 2013 — the 100th anniversary of Tubman's death.

"It is awesome," said Valerie Manokey, 75, Tubman's oldest-living descendant in Maryland and a retired teacher's aide from Cambridge. "It's like something inside you that was growing, and you knew someone would see the significance and it would blossom and now you seevisitor center, lobbying for a large-scale, state-sanctioned commemoration that highlights Tubman's relationship with nature and the rural Maryland landscape that she navigated on freedom missions.

In 2007, the state acquired 17.3 acres of land for the state park, located about 10 miles south of Cambridge and adjacent to the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. But without federal funding — a prospect that grew dimmer as the economy worsened — it stalled.

The state ultimately used $8.5 million in funding from the Federal Transportation Enhancement Program, a discretionary fund awarded to states from the U.S. Department of Transportation. The rest of the $21 million project will be paid for with other federal grants and state money.

"It's a large amount of money in a very tough fiscal time," said Kristin Saunders Evans, assistant