The starving of Shallmar

The national effort to save the inhabitants of the mining town of Shallmar, Md., from starvation in December 1949 is the subject of an interesting two-part feature by James A. Rada Jr. in the Dec. 27-28 Cumberland Times-News. Here's the first part, and here's the second. I marveled that things in Shallmar could have gotten so bad without the neighbors noticing, but then I found the now-defunct town on Google Maps. As you can see, Shallmar was terribly isolated, between the river and the end of the road, just like the better known hamlet of Gee's Bend, Ala.