Coal miner reading a book: A memorial to those who died in the Appalachians of western Maryland

Thousands of lives have been lost in the pursuit of coal to fuel homes and manufacturing since the Industrial Revolution, and in Frostburg, Maryland there’s a memorial to the hundreds of men (and some boys) who died in ghastly mine accidents between 1838 and 2007.

The immersive memorial opened in August 2024. It sits on a ridge overlooking the Great Allegany Passage.

The bronze statue at the center of the memorial depicts a miner with a pick at his side, a book in one hand, an apple in the other. He appears to be reading on his lunch break.

There is no sign explaining the statue, but a visitor can get the idea from a reading of the detailed signage throughout the memorial: Coal miners of the late 19th Century, many of them immigrants, valued education and donated most of the money to purchase the land for Maryland State Normal School No. 2. 

The school was needed to train teachers who would eventually teach the miners’ children. But many potential teachers in western Maryland did not have the means to travel to Baltimore (or Towson) for their formal education, and it was difficult to convince Baltimore teachers to take jobs in the coal mining regions of Allegany County and Garrett County. 

The Maryland General Assembly only reluctantly coughed up the rest of the funding for the school. It opened its doors to 57 students in 1902. State Normal School No. 2 later became Frostburg Teacher’s College, then Frostburg State College and finally today’s comprehensive institution known as Frostburg State University.

I will soon have more on the memorial and additional photographs in a post on my Substack commentary page.