Cumberland Heritage Days and Western Maryland Scenic Railroad 2005

I had visited Cumberland Maryland ["Queen City and Gateway to the West"] several times when I first moved here 35 years ago but hadn't been back for a long while.

It's about 150 miles west of Alexandria [about as far west as Buffalo is], where Maryland, West Virginia and Pennsylvania meet in the mountains and is at an elevation of about 1,000 feet.

I haven't been on I-70S through Maryland for a while; the highway's very hectic - even on a week day - and the first section of it is as wide and just as ugly as the northern section of the NJ turnpike. West of Frederick it gets substantially better going over the first of the mountains and after you turn onto I-48 [the new version of the old National Road from the 19th Century] there's much lighter traffic and more interesting scenery. Many places the median strip is filled with purple larkspurs and red poppies.

The last major pass before Cumberland is Sideling Hill Cut, a gigantic gash ripping through the mountains. The highway builders have learned from the politicians and the spin on it is that it is the largest open cut in the world? in Maryland? and it lets you see millions of years of geology including coal seams in front of your very eyes.

They've even built an "educational center" at the rest stop there. At the rest stop I tried to call to check on my hotel reservations and I found out my ATT wireless phone can't get a signal in the mountains. Also as I stepped outside the car I felt the heat which was the same as it was in Washington although I was around 1400 feet up


 The central part of Cumberland is approximately oval shaped. The north loop is formed by the B&O Railroad tracks; the south section by the residential area above a former fort; and through the middle runs the Western Maryland Railroad tracks, Interstate 68 [the old National Road ] and the C&O Canal [which ends/begins here] . This panorama map from the turn of the century is old but it gives a clear view of the city’s layout. Willis Creek

I was staying at the Holiday Inn which is opposite where the B&O Station had been before Amtrak or CSX demolished the station. The commercial part of the city goes from there down to the C&O canal [which runs/ran from here to Washington and Alexandria].  Ironically, what I remembered most vividly from Cumberland was the Queen City Hotel which also contained the Baltimore and Ohio RR Station. It was demolished in the 1970s, replaced by Amtrak's current shed and also by the Holiday Inn that I was staying in.

The area right around Cumberland is very similar looking to that around Asheville: rounded green mountains, haze and fog in the early mornings; what's different is the middle of the cities. Asheville is more like a broad bowl rimmed by mountains while Cumberland has more hills, elevations and mountains jutting up into it. Perhaps the most noteworthy characteristic in Cumberland is the large number of closely compacted steeples intermixed with the mountains.

 The middle of the city has strange juxtapositions: you pass by buildings that are not merely nice but which show that there had been much wealth in the city to support their scale in such a small city [and enough taste to have gone with architectural trends that were not too far behind those of Europe: art nouveau, Queen Anne and one identified as "German Byzantine Baroque".]

The main street is a Fußgängerzone, well landscaped and highlighted with several fountains that are well executed and maintained. It could have been a medium sized city in northern Europe .... until you looked down the side streets or too closely at the stores.

Although the buildings are solid, substantial, wealthy-looking, the businesses in them are sparse and non  economic. Many of the buildings house things like a county physical rehabilitation center, a senior citizens' housing building, a large store empty except for its window space advertising subsidized housing, two or three local  museums or historical groups. And once you leave the main street [Baltimore Street] there is very little active on the side streets.

Partially this is the case of almost every small or medium U.S. city: the suburban shopping malls sucked their economic life out from the downtown section 20 or 25 years ago. But Cumberland has an additional economic problem.

When I visited Cumberland 25 or 30 years ago the population was in the low 40,000 range. I knew that the railroad and a lot of big factories in the area [Goodyear? John Deere? Black and Decker?] had closed but hadn't realized how extreme it was.

The population has dropped from around 43,000 to 21,000. And I just looked up that while the U.S. median household income is $42,000, the local Cumberland median household income is only $25,000. When I looked at real estate listings in the paper, normal middle class [3-4 bedrooms, 2-3 bathrooms, garage] houses were seldom above $200,000; most were under $160,000, clustering around $130,000; a large number of small houses [2 bedrooms / one bathroom] were in the $50,000 to $90,000 range. [Looking up some numbers, I found that the median house price is $60,000 in Cumberland vs $260,000 in Alexandria.]

It's obvious that there's a lot of thought and effort [and a lot of federal and state tax payer money] going into the city, but the city is not prospering economically on its own and there are few wealth generating and job creating operations going on. Yes, there are at least three upscale restaurants [one of which, Culinaire Cafe, is a branch of the Allegheny College Cooking School] on the pedestrian street; an art moderne movie theater which is being converted into a stage theater; two museums. But there are very few commercial stores selling what people need and would make a special trip downtown for. If just one Walmart or one Target opened up downtown, it would create more jobs and wealth than all the enterprises that are going on right now.

As I was walking through the downtown section past an outdoor cafe, someone called my name out: it was a former co-worker - with his wife and another couple - who was heading to Wright's Falling Water in Pennsylvania. They were just paying their bill and about to start driving again. [It reminded me of the time I was walking through a park in Hamburg and was noticed and stopped by a cop who was the cousin of a friend of mine.]

I decided to have a late lunch but was not going to eat outdoors in the heat and humidity. The coolest indoor restaurant I found appeared to be a coffee house rather than a restaurant. It had a cutesy name, The Daily Grind Unwind, but since it was well air conditioned I decided to try it anyway. It was a good choice.

The waitresses were uniformed in semi-masculine clothing, with ties in Windsor knots pulled down loosely on their breasts. The downstairs section was a little hectic and cramped; but the upstairs area was high ceilinged and spacious and well air conditioned. The windows were almost floor to ceiling, looking out onto the Fußgängerzone with its outdoor cafes and fountains. The decor was darkish plain and could have been a bourgeois cafe in Stockholm or Amsterdam. So it was a surprise to find out it was a chain - which has a branch near me and which I hadn't heard of - and not a local operation.

After lunch and going through the "lower" downtown section of Cumberland, I crossed Willis Creek and started up the hill to the residential and monumental part of the city. From the size and style of the houses and the prominence and size of the various churches, this must have been where the wealthy of the city lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

This had been the site of Fort Cumberland in the French and Indian War; the French took it over and then drove the English out of Pennsylvania and the Ohio. The English regained the fort as a backup and held it until they ultimately won the war in Europe.

As you climb up the hill and reach the ridge there are historical markers and excavations outlining where the various parts of the fort were; the fort looks like it covered an area of about 5 by 5 blocks. On the fort's grounds is Emanuel Episcopal Church, which seems to be THE church of the city, and which had been a station on the underground railroad and which has a series of catacombs. Further up the street among the Victoria mansions are the _______ Museum, the History House Museum and - in a contemporary building - the public library. The heat and humidity were extreme and after several hours of walking my clothes were soaked through with perspiration. So I stopped in the library for about 10 minutes to cool off.

On the way back down the hill I stopped off at the Queen City Dairy where I had a discount coupon for a frozen custard. The girl serving it didn't believe the $2 bill was real money and had to call someone over for clarification before she would accept it.

I didn't make the best choice for supper; I thought I should go where the locals dined instead of the tourists and wound up at a buffet restaurant about three miles from downtown. It was worth the price but there was very little atmosphere, like one of the big Pennsylvania Dutch restaurants.

The clientele was indicative of what I had seen the rest of the day and would see tomorrow. According to statistics I just looked up, Cumberland is 93.6% European American; I don't believe it. Based on my two days there it's 99% European American.

There are a lot of the odd couples I've seen many times in the Shenandoah Valley, further east: small, 5'8" thin, wiry men with very large [not necessarily fat] wives. A disturbing proportion of teenaged girls who are morbidly obese. Teenagers dressed in fashions about 12-15 years out of date. A much higher proportion of young married couples in their early 20s with children than you find here. [There also are more displays of flags and patriotism, as in Jersey City and Kearny, than in the Washington area. The presence of veterans is much more noticeable there than here but its hard to determine if that's because the proportion of veterans in the population is that much higher than here or if its connected with drinking and entertainment laws that make veterans' lodges more important there than here. ]

At the table next to mine was a father in his 50s with his daughter in her early 20s and her 4 year old son. The boy had a blue crew cut and talked so much that when his mother took him to the bathroom, another man at the next table leaned over and said to the father - in a matter of fact not nasty way - "boy, he never shuts up". The father/grandfather agreed and they had a discussion on dry wall installation.

After supper I went back to the hotel [and got sweaty from just going out to the car to get my camera]. I noticed that Amtrak's Capitol Limited from Washington to Chicago had just pulled in at the remnants of the B&O station opposite my hotel, where the Queen City Hotel and Station had been. The train was stopped for about 20 minutes to change crews and I talked a while to one of the conductors. He was in his early 20s and Amtrak's shaky future made me think about his future employment.



The next morning was the start of Cumberland Heritage Days and also the day for my train ride. I went back to the Daily Grind for a bagel and an iced tea and then started out.

Baltimore Street through the commercial section [which is actually the original National Road from the early 19th Century] and Washington Street, its continuation across Willis Creek [which is basically a very big concrete lined sluice] and up the hill - about 15 blocks total - were lined on both sides with vendor booths. Many were just the kinds of things you see at every carnival here [funnel cakes, Polish sausages, ice cones] but also, mostly in the commercial section, were a lot of booths for art, history, archaeology groups and, mostly up the hill, were a large number of local craft vendors with quilts and jewelry and mountain herbs, etc. A really unusual booth was the tree stump sculpture studio where they were using chain saws to make statues.

After about 10 minutes of walking I was uncomfortably warm; the temperature was already in the high 70s and extremely humid. In fact at 10:15 I had to break off from the tour group at the Masonic Lodge because I was approaching sick from the heat [there was no air conditioning in the building]. There was also an interesting looking tour of the Episcopalian church’s catacombs and the underground railway but I couldn't / wouldn't / didn't go on it because of the extreme discomfort from the weather. I noticed that other people were wearing shorts as I was and had little or no sweat on them while my face neck and hair were already sweat soaked and it was spreading out into my clothes. Again I took a break for about 10 minutes in the library to get out of the heat.

It was interesting and could have been more so in better weather; but after 1½ hours of walking it was time to get on the train.

The Western Maryland Railroad station is located where the downtown area, Willis Creek and the start of the C&O Canal meet. There's a National Park Service information office in the basement and a redeveloped area with a few stores and space for shows around the station called Canal Place with reminders and remainders of the C&O Canal days, such as this mule statue. The Park Service? State of Maryland? is about to re-fill the canal ["watering the canal" as the signs put it] so that Cumberland at the western end of the canal can have the same kind of tow boat rides that run in Georgetown at the eastern end of the canal.

The train ride was from Cumberland westwards to Frostburg [where there's a state university]; it’s around a 30 mile ride because it doesn't run in a straight line but in a arc that goes northwards and then southwards through the Maryland Narrows and Lovers’ Leap. One reason I wanted to take this trip is that the Western Maryland Railroad is also supported by tax subsidies and the State of Maryland is threatening to end the subsidies which would ened the railroad.

Because I wanted to make sure I got air conditioning, I went first class which included a lunch [which I didn't want].

The car was set up as a dining car, but from the way it was constructed I suspect it was originally an executive car or a bar car that had been converted. The walls were paneled with carved wood; everything was in darkish colors with purple/violet curtains on the windows. When I got to my table my name was on the place holder and the woman at the next table asked me: What kind of a name is that? As always, I was tempted to answer "American" but decided to be polite. She then wanted to know How is it pronounced? and I pointed out that it was pronounced exactly the way it was spelled.

The train consisted of two dining cars and 4 or 5 coaches and moved fairly slowly, I'm guessing at about 20 miles an hour. Since it was powered by a steam engine, there were cars and trucks racing along side of us and then pulling out to move into intersections where they could get pictures of the train. One of them had a video camera mounted to its roof.

There was a lot of steam whistle blowing. It struck me that in Austria where the majority of the trains I rode were powered by steam engines, there wasn't the melancholy whistle sound we have in the US; I recall mostly short high pitched whistles while the trains were being shuffled around and cars were being cut on and off at the stations.

The scenery was a mixture of spectacular open mountain vistas, especially in The Narrows; people's backyards [with little indication of how you could get to the houses] and rock and tree walls just a yard or two from the train's windows. Brush Tunnel was just before Frostburg and was the tunnel from the Pontiac Montana commercial a few years ago. I had expected the clientele to be  mostly older and mostly old rail fans; but there were about 1/3 children, one third women and the men looked for the most part like tourists as opposed to rail fans. Maybe the railfans were all in the crs racing and photographing the train. 

Lunch was served; in my case roast beef on American bread toast; corn; mashed potatoes. All plain but all good and too much for me at lunch time.

Almost exactly to the second when we pulled into Frostburg, a heavy rain storm began with sheets of rain. The crew forced everybody off the train. It would have been bad enough to have several hundred people disembarking all at once into the rain, but there was nowhere to go. To reach downtown Frostburg where I was heading you had to walk up six or seven stairways [from where, I found out later you then started climbing a hill]; to get to the restaurant - where everybody who had not been in the first class cars was heading - you had to get to the right side of the train. But the passengers were discharged onto the left side of the train where some were able to get into the small station but most were either in the rain or just under the eaves of the station. The train couldn't move because it took time to get the engine onto a turntable.

The rain lasted only about 20 minutes and I was able to set off for downtown Frostburg. I had been warned in advance that there wouldn't be enough time to walk to the university area - and that was when there wasn't any rain delay - and had intended to see only the downtown commercial section. [I'm sure there is a big commercial sprawl on the edge of Frostburg that you reach by car. ]

Frostburg has less than half the population of Cumberland only 8,000 - I'm not sure if that includes students or not - and is at twice the elevation: 2,000 feet. It didn't feel any cooler or drier, though. The main street is about three to four blocks long and probably offers more bars, liquor stores, tattoo parlors than non-college towns with 8,000 people do. There's an historic hotel, Hotel Gunther, which is not especially architecturally impressive; the whole downtown is plain without being ugly. I was walking up and down the main street which is also the National Road

I was stuffed from lunch but since another torrential rain storm started, I ducked into the Princess Restaurant and had a piece of their "famous cocoanut custard pie" and an iced tea. It was good pie but I wasn't in the mood for eating more food just then. The prices in the Princess were similar to what you find in Northern New Jersey diners, far lower than around here or in Asheville: $7-8 for complete dinners with soup, salad and dessert. Sandwiches ranging from $1.45 to $4. The set up and lay out was pleasant and comfortable. According to the menu, the place had started out as confectionary in the 1930s and then switched in to a diner/restaurant in the 1950s; there still was a separate candy counter where they sell their home made chocolates and at the fountain they offer ice cream soda, malteds and milk shakes.

I got back to the train about ten minutes before it was to head back and saw that a diesel has been hooked up to it's front end and - as far as I could tell - the steam engine now at the back wasn't doing anything, just being towed along with the cars by the diesel .

The woman [who had been discussing my name] and her daughter were joined by their husbands who had been part of the groups following along by car talking pictures of the train, On the way back dessert [chocolate cake or Sara Lee French Cheese Cake] was served with coffee/iced tea/ lemonade..

The ride back was slower which seemed odd since we were going downhill; someone in the car commented that maybe the diesel was being used, since the steam engine might not be able to brake the train with so many cars on it on the downward slope.

After we got back I walked some more among the festival exhibits and through the band stands; but the temperature was rising into the low 90s and it was getting towards 4 pm. So I began a non stop and uneventful drive back to Virginia.

I had originally intended to do some walking or light hiking along the C&O Canal and especially through the Paw Paw Tunnel. But Friday night before I went to sleep, something struck me: when I was walking around the downtown and residential areas that afternoon and then back at the hotel, I had drunk at least 4, maybe 5, twenty ounce bottles of water and diet soda -- but hadn't had to pass water until late at night and then very little. I realized that besides having been physically uncomfortable from the heat I probably had gotten dehydrated even with drinking an immense amount of liquid. Since I've recently been locked up by a teaching schedule in the summers, I haven't made any long or short summer trips for several years. This one, as pleasant as the city and the train ride were, reminded me to stay indoors from June to September and not to travel again in the summer.

Round trip was 298 miles, averaging 26.4 mpg with gas ranging in price from $2.09 in Alexandria to $2.17 in Cumberland.

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