Allegany County at Atlas Obscura

Previously, I linked to the Roadside America entries for Allegany, Garrett, Washington and Frederick counties, as a baby step toward establishing a canonical list of well-known Western Maryland Weirdness. In the same spirit, I turn now to Atlas Obscura, beginning with Allegany County's five entries. Never fear, Allegany, we will do much better than that!

Cumberland: George Washington’s Headquarters. “This one-room cabin where the young colonel slept during the French and Indian War.”

Cumberland [actually LaVale]: LaVale Toll Gate House. “Maryland’s first (and last standing) toll house on America’s first federal road established the state as the ‘Gateway to the West.’” Also at Roadside America.

Frostburg: The Jail in the Gunter Hotel. “The antique hotel still has a jail in the basement, though the cockfighting ring is long gone.” Also at Roadside America.

Lonaconing: Klotz Throwing Company. “A remarkable time capsule of American manufacturing deep in Maryland coal country.”

Oldtown: Paw Paw Tunnel. “Despite violent work crews and massive delays this abandoned canal tunnel was built to last into the modern day.” Also at Roadside America.

Next: Garrett County at Atlas Obscura! 

 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rail Victims Moved 10 Miles in 100 Years

Image
Looking toward Frostburg from the Brush Tunnel near Corriganville. A popular spot with 21 st -century ghost hunters is the Brush Tunnel, on the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad near Corriganville, just west of the Great Allegheny Passage parking lot on Cash Valley Road. Built in 1912 to accommodate parallel tracks as part of the Western Maryland’s Cumberland-to-Pittsburgh extension, the Brush Tunnel likely had its share of the miseries and fatalities common to all old-time tunnel projects. But oral tradition sometimes associates the Brush Tunnel haunting with a pedestrian disaster after construction was over, when tourists stepped out of the path of one train only to be hit by another train going in the opposite direction. While she neither names the tunnel nor mentions a haunting, Betty Van Newkirk briefly summarizes the fatality in a 1995 article:   When trains began to travel through the tunnels, around the huge horseshoe curve below Frostburg, and down the long grade to...
Read more

I Hope This Will Be My Most Disgusting Post

  Here is the entirety of a brief on Page 3 of The Daily News of Frederick, Maryland, 14 Jan. 1887: A Delicate Operation. – Dr. U.A. Sharretts, of this city, yesterday successfully relieved Mr. Geo. M. Gittinger of 60 feet of tape worm. This is the fourth relief Mr. Gittinger has had in the past 10 months, aggregating 230 feet.   I can find no reliable claim online for what the longest single tapeworm recovered from a human may have been, and I’m frankly too disgusted by what I did find to look any further. In fact, I refuse even to confirm whether George Gittinger’s fourth tapeworm (fourth!) was the longest ever recovered in Frederick, much less Maryland, the United States, and so forth. Seek that info if you must; I wish you joy of it. I’m done. Sources: “A Delicate Operation.” The Daily News (Frederick, Maryland), 14 Jan. 1887. Page 3. Accessed 19 Nov. 2021 via Newspapers.com. Ridgley, Jaime. “Treating Tapeworm.” Bygone Maryland, 26 Feb. 2017. https://bygonemar...
Read more

Washington County at Atlas Obscura

Previously, I listed the sole Garrett County location covered by Atlas Obscura . The site has five locations in Washington County. Never fear, Washington, we will do better than that! Big Pool: Fort Frederick . “A star fort along the C&O Canal in western Maryland that protected America in three wars.” Boonsboro: Crystal Grottoes Caverns . “Bizarre Cavern.” Knoxville: The Sign Above the Tunnel . “This advertisement for talcum powder was painted on the rock face and has since defied removal.” Sharpsburg: Killiansburg Cave . “A cave on the Maryland border where civilians took refuge during the bloodiest battle of the Civil War.” Smithsburg: Abandoned Hang-Gliding Launch Pad . “A labor of love built by local hang-gliding enthusiasts, this ideal launch spot was outlawed by the authorities and has since been largely abandoned.” Next: Frederick County in Atlas Obscura!  
Read more