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 ...

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...