Midland, MD

Midland occupies the Georges Creek Valley in Allegany County, five miles south of Frostburg and three miles north of Lonaconing. Dan's Mountain rises to the east and Savage Mountain to the west; Paradise Run and Neff's Run drain toward Georges Creek, while Squirrel Neck Run comes down from the western slope. That enclosed geography made Midland a coal town. Founded in 1850 and incorporated in 1900, it grew alongside the mines of the Georges Creek basin, one of Western Maryland's historic coal districts.

Midland still has its own town government, with Town Hall on Big Lane and a council that meets on the first Monday evening. The 2020 census counted 488 residents, a useful scale for the compact valley settlement. Dan's Rock, about three miles beyond town, opens a view across the eastern end of Allegany County and toward West Virginia. Midland's local map is a municipal center on the valley floor, mountain watersheds around it, and a coal landscape that continues beyond the town line.