Secrets of Washington County coming early next year
I thought I would share an update for my newest Secrets book. Secrets of Washington County was cruising along smoothly earlier this year until COVID hit, and the places I needed to visit for research were closed. With things opening up, I’ve been able to restart the work. It’s about two-thirds complete, and I’ve been finding out some interesting things about the county. Did you know Hancock is earthquake central for Western Maryland? Hagerstown, Williamsport, and Boonsboro were all considered for locations for the national capital. While Fort Ritchie’s soldiers successfully fought Nazis during WWII, a single woodpecker was able to take out the fort’s power. I’ve got a few leads on additional stories I’m trying to track down. I expect the finished book to have about three dozen little-known stories or forgotten history about the county and around 50 Read more…
Getting to the top the hard way
Men helped George Oakley into a straightjacket and secured his arms behind the 36-year-old man on the evening of August 25, 1924. The men tied a rope around Oakley’s feet, and with a signal, a winch lifted Oakley upside down to the top of the 6 1/2-story First National Bank Building in Hagerstown, MD. Then hanging from a car tire inner tube, Oakley freed himself from the straightjacket, climbed down the side of the building and then back up to the roof “Going up the outside wall of the First National Bank Building with the ease of an ordinary mortal climbing the steps inside…,” according to the Hagerstown Morning Herald. Before this gravity-defying feat, the daredevil had stood on his head on the front bumper of a Chrysler with four-wheel brakes. The car drove along the street at 10 mph Read more…
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