from Amherstburg met with Prime Minister Robert Borden who had seemed in agreement with them at the time; however, the advent of World War I halted the process. The Historic Sites and Monuments Board recognized the Fort in 1921 and suggested that a plaque be erected to commemorate the area. This particular plaque was finally placed, over ten years later, on the tax defaulted Webber property. In 1938, the Fort Malden Management Committee was formed under the direction of MP S. Murray Clark to advocate for the improvement of the fort and to build a museum. They received approval for the construction of a museum on the Webber property, which was completed in the summer of 1939. The first curator of the museum was Management Committee member David Botsford who was responsible for much of the early archive collection at the fort. Finally, on 28 December 1940, an Order in Council from the Federal Government designated Fort Malden as a National Historic Park with its official opening taking place on 22 June 1941. However, it was not until the purchase of Lot 4 that the Fort come to acquire many of its recognizable features, such as the Hough House, the earthworks, the bastion, the barrack, and the former laundry building. Currently, the National Historic Site is and includes the fort itself, the Brick Commissariat building constructed in 1831, the King's Navy Yard Park, and a stone lighthouse built in 1836. Fort Malden's preservation and the popularity of the site has led to an increased interest in cultivating the Town of Amherstburg's heritage. In addition to the Fort's museum and archive, Fort Malden also offers educational experiences to the public. These tours, group sessions, and camps are primarily geared towards elementary school groups and focus on the fort's military past, as well as the daily settler life in the town. Underground Railroad The town of Amherstburg was historically referred to as Fort Malden, or simply Malden, due to the fort's prominence within the settlement's origins and history. Fort Malden was deemed the "chief place of entry" for those refugees seeking to enter Canada so as to escape slavery within the United States. The abolitionist Levi Coffin supported this assessment, describing Fort Malden as, "the great landing place, the principle terminus of the underground railroad of the west." After 1850, approximately thirty fugitive slaves a day were crossing over to Fort Malden