Bucket-Toting Miner Trudges Home Forever

Oak Hill Cemetery in Lonaconing is the setting of this undated post at the Ghosts of America website, by a writer who identifies only as “Jeri”:

This sighting occurred in the late 1990s. I told a few people about what we saw, but was [sic] received with skepticism. I finally just stopped telling the story. I stumbled across ghostsofamerica.com and decided to tell the story one more time. My husband and I were at Oak Hill Cemetery on a late afternoon in July. No one else was there. We drove around to the top row, parked the car, and got out to look for ancestors buried there.

It was odd how quickly a strong wind started to blow. Both of us were looking down at the lower road, and a figure (seemingly oblivious to us) was walking in the direction of where it elbowed up to the next level. He was dressed as an old time miner. What he had on was very recognizable. He had on a mining hat and was carrying what looked like a lunch bucket. He looked like he was covered in coal dust. It was as if he was on his way home from after a hard day's work. The thing we noticed was that he was not totally solid looking, and it didn't seem that his feet were solidly touching the ground.

We were amazed and didn't take our eyes off of him for about ten seconds. My husband and I glanced at each other in surprise. We were not sure if we both had seen what had just occurred before our eyes.

Mind you, it was just a glance. We both looked back to where the figure had been seen walking, but he was gone, and the wind died down. I would question myself if I had been alone, but my husband and I both recounted what we had seen to each other. Did we get a glimpse into a long ago time? I don't know. (PS. I meant to also mention that when we first saw the figure he was walking in front of the tool shed.).

If “not totally solid looking” means transparent, the tool shed may be significant both for pinpointing the location and for being visible through the miner as he passed it.

One wonders whether the short-lived “strong wind” had any effect on the landscape – skittering leaves, swaying trees, billowing dust – and whether the weary miner made any noise. Maybe all was eerie silence, however briefly.

One also wonders whether the “ancestors” Jeri sought had been miners themselves, and whether the cemetery trip had been preceded by the couple’s reading about miners, looking at photos of miners, conceivably even dreaming about miners. This could have affected their perceptions in a suggestive environment – such as a miners’ cemetery – and any differences in those perceptions quickly would have been reconciled, as they “both recounted what we had seen to each other.”

Oak Hill Cemetery dates from 1864. Besides containing many miners’ graves, it conceivably was a peaceful, daily shortcut for living miners, back in the day.

Has anyone else seen this weary miner in Oak Hill, alive or dead?

Sources:

“Lonaconing, Maryland Ghost Sightings.” Ghosts of America. Undated. Accessed 31 Oct. 2021 at https://www.ghostsofamerica.com/2/Maryland_Lonaconing_ghost_sightings.html

“Oak Hill Cemetery.” Find a Grave. Accessed 31 Oct. 2021 at https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/81308/oak-hill-cemetery