The "Queen City"

Cumberland Exits off Route 68,
Which Parallels the Old National Road

Since 1974, I have passed through Cumberland, Md., countless times on my way to Ohio to visit family. I've never stopped but always wondered about what lies in this small city called the "Queen City" -- queen of the Allegheny Mountains that I've come to love so much. I've known that here are the headwaters of the Potomac River and the first mile of the C&O Canal and seen the many church steeples that rise over the city. Last Sunday was sunny and warm, and the Queen City beckoned. This is how the city looks at night -- not a New York City skyline but a beautiful one of many church steeples rising against the background of the mountains. On Sunday afternoon, we visited many of those churches and found them, alone, worth the trip. The Disciples of Christ Church has the town's clock in its steeple, and the old clock still chimes the hour, every hour.

Cumberland at Night

The Gothic-style Episcopal Church has tunnels underneath it that served as a storage depot for George Washington's troops during the French and Indian Wars and later were used in the Underground Railroad. The Methodist Church had an afternoon organ recital open to the public to celebrate the renovation of its old pipe organ, and we found the site of the last Church of Christ Scientist in a huge, colonial building that was once a home. Our appetites were whetted.

Monday dawned sunny and delightful, so after a hike at Rocky Gap State Park, where we happened upon an aviary of birds of prey, including a pair of stunning barred owls, a great horned owl, a bald eagle, a barn owl and a vulture, we headed back to Cumberland seven miles away, stopping at a Candyland store, oddly, we thought, called "the Fruit Bowl." Inside was a wonderful array of every kind of candy you could think of and many you couldn't, plus piles of apples, pears, fresh produce, Mennonite and Amish foods -- all at prices so low that we filled bag after bag.                  

Head of barred owl

And just above this place is Wills Mountain and the local lover's leap, where an Indian maiden purportedly leaped to her death when the chieftain forbade her to marry a white man during the the time of the French and Indian War. Cumberland is chock-full of history that comes alive (the only kind that interests me).

But you don't have to have driven past scores of times like I did, before I stopped to investigate Cumberland. It's worth a trip of its own. Here we found the West Virginia Scenic Railway, a biker's paradise where the Great Allegheny Passage, a 141-mile, mostly paved trail, leads from near Pittsburgh to Cumberland. There it meets the C&O, 184.5-mile trail to Washington, D.C. Nearby Canal Place is where the railway, the GAP and the C&O meet, and it's a stone's throw from George Washington's first command HQ during the French and Indian Wars. There are stunning views of the Allegheny Mountains, the Potomac River and Wills Creek, and the railroad trestles -- all converging at the passage through the mountains that was once so critical to our country's growth. 

Washington's HQ

Episcopal Church with Underground Tunnels

Allegany County Courthouse

Statue Outside the Railway Station and Visitors' Center

The old railway station has been converted to a lovely visitor center and is located next to Canal Place and the bike trails. It houses a fine exhibit of the C&O Canal inside a replica of the famous Paw Paw Tunnel.  And outside is a statue of a mule and boy, the power that navigated the canal boats, along with the downstream currents.  

Finally, what would be a great trip without food? Cumberland didn't disappoint us. While the Crabby Pig at Canal Place offered up a choice of seafood or pork barbeque with tangy coleslaw, our favorite place by far was the Queen City Creamery where real, old-fashioned frozen custard is the specialty. But the Reuben sandwich, the three-plays-for-a-quarter jukebox, the friendly staff, and the old-fashioned but comfortable decor, complete with a soda fountain, were all top-notch. So here's a farewell (but I'll be back) salute to the Queen City. You can be sure that I won't zip past next time. If nothing else, I'll slip off the exit and grab a blue-ribbon frozen custard before I continue west (or east).