Weird Western Maryland

"He led the world in mining coal," says the epitaph on the Finzel Cemetery tombstone of Lawrence Finzel (1873-1919), and that's no exaggeration. Eulogized as the "World Champion Coal Miner," Finzel was judged by Johns Hopkins doctors to be "the finest muscled man that ever came to the institution." In 1915-1916, when he was 43 years old, Finzel averaged 12 tons a coal a day single-handed, three times what was expected of anyone else. He earned $2,360.60 that year, equivalent to $60,000 today, a fabulous sum for a miner at the time. Understandably in demand, Finzel moved from place to place and set production records in Maryland, West Virginia and Pennsylvania, all while avoiding the accidents that crippled, maimed or killed so many -- including his oldest son, Bernard, who died in a February 1916 cave-in in Fayette County, West Virginia, age 14. What finally killed Finzel at the young age of 45, when he lived on Bowery Street in Frostburg, was not the ...

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...

Beall Elementary on College Avenue in Frostburg has an unknown soldier buried in the schoolyard, only a few feet from the front door. Atop the grave is a boulder with a granite marker bearing this inscription: Unearthed 1870 by Christian Spitznas Civil War Veteran. Donated 1929 by his son Charles Spitznas The inscription is ambiguous in multiple directions. Just because a body was unearthed here doesn't mean it's necessarily buried here any longer, though the stone says nothing about the deceased being moved. "Civil War Veteran" could be read as referring to the finder, Christian Spitznas, rather than to the dead person who was found. If the veteran's name was unknown, how did anyone know they had fought in the Civil War? Had they been buried in their uniform? Surely they weren't found in their uniform, not five years after Appomattox. But under what circumstances were they unearthed? On the other side of the boulder, in stark contrast, is an unambiguous brass...

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 co...

Last night at dinner, Amy Armiento asked what I would write about first.  This was a reasonable question, but one I hadn't thought about. I have amassed a very long list of weird local topics complex and simple, clear-cut and mysterious, current and historical. Some will require lots of research, others could be written off the top of my head. Where to begin? On the spot, I decided a good start for this blog, at least, would be to list some of the obvious items that everyone who knows the area would expect to see covered, given how often they come up in conversation. I think of this starter list as The Canon. Two pioneering websites that cater to the weird traveler are Roadside America* , "your online guide to offbeat tourist attractions," and Atlas Obscura , "the definitive guide to the world's hidden wonders." Each has a narrower remit than my project, but as both include a handful of canonical sites in Western Maryland, I'll begin simply by listing th...