On page 18 of his book, History of the Underground Railroad, Cockrum supports the Briggs Story with his reference to three pick up points along the Indiana shoreline of Lake Michigan where slaves were secreted and smuggled aboard a lumber bark manned by antislavery crews. Back then the unpopulated lakeshore of all three counties afforded many hiding places in the dunes where a boat could easily make a stop to pick up one or more fugitive slaves on a pre-arranged signal.

Our research leads us to believe that one of these pick up points was the Devil's Punchbowl, located in Porter County near the mouth of the present day Burns Ditch. This is where the Alpha Wreck is located and where the Briggs Story takes place. To date, there have been no other shipwrecks found in the vicinity of Burns Ditch.

The second location was a small community located at the foot of Yankee Slide, just east of Trail Creek in Michigan City. It was known to the people who once lived there as Hungry Hollow or, as Little Canada to fugitive slaves who believed that their next stop was Big Canada to the north.

As of this date, the third and final location in Lake County is still under investigation by our team. We believe that it would have been similar to the Devil’s Punchbowl location and was hidden somewhere within the marshland or dune shoreline. There is also the possibility that there was more than one hiding spot used in Lake County.