Harpers Ferry

Lou Rawls at Ocean Downs Grammy Award-winning singer Lou Rawls, who has recorded more than 60 albums during a career that spans more than 40 years, performs tomorrow at Bally's at Ocean Downs near Ocean City. Expect to hear songs from Rawls' newest album, "Season 4 U," and his hits from the '60s and '70s, including "Love Is a Hurtin' Thing," "Lady Love" and "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine." Roomful of Blues, twice named the Down Beat International "Blues Band of the Year," opens the show.

In Frederick County Boat passenger's body found; companion missing HARPERS FERRY, W.Va. - The body of a 28-year-old Frederick County man was recovered yesterday in the Potomac River near Harpers Ferry. Three men were fishing about 5 p.m. Friday when their boat overturned in Washington County. Boat owner Dale Ewell France, of the 200 block of Sycamore Road in Mount Airy, swam to shore, but his two passengers never surfaced. The body of Ervin Ray, of the 10000 block of Bethel Road, was recovered about 10 a.m. yesterday.

In West Virginia Events to mark birthday of abolitionist Brown HARPERS FERRY, W.Va. -- Scholars, politicians and history buffs will gather at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park this month to celebrate the 200th anniversary of abolitionist John Brown's birth. Brown led a short-lived raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry in October 1859. He had planned the assault to liberate and arm slaves, then spread a rebellion through the South. He was captured and hanged after a trial in Charles Town, W.Va.

IF YOU'VE SEEN one rock, you really haven't seen them all -- at least that's how Conrad Sigmon sees it. He finds inspiration in the fractured chunks of rocks that surface in his garden. The whitish quartz is colored by orange traces of iron. Some stones have peculiar shape, color, or mineral stripe. When one strikes his fancy, he saves it. Some inspire him to make sculptures. "The idea is the biggest thing," he says. Sigmon rarely breaks a stone to fit the sculpture. He'd rather fit lots of stones together.

LaVere Neale, a career railroader who retired as chief train dispatcher of CSX Transportation, died Saturday of cancer at his White Marsh home. He was 78. From his Camden Station office, Mr. Neale directed passenger and freight trains traveling to and from Harpers Ferry, W.Va., to Philadelphia and points in between. "It was more than just a job to him," said Thomas Swearman of Forest Hill, a colleague at CSX. "He started as a telegrapher and knew everything about the railroad." Born in Arkport, N.Y., he attended local schools there and worked briefly on a farm until he was summoned to Baltimore by his uncle, Isaac Neale, an employee of the old Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.

An evening of tubing on the Potomac River ended in death for two young men in Western Maryland yesterday when a commuter train struck the pair as they tried to cross tracks near the river in Sandy Hook in Washington County.Michael Caputo, 21, and Philip Bricken, 20, both of north Potomac, were declared dead at the scene. None of the train's passengers was hurt.The men, were struck by a westbound MARC train en route from Washington to Martinsburg, W. Va.State police said the victims climbed ashore after riding the river and were trying to join two friends on the other side of the tracks shortly before 7 p.m.1st Sgt. Laura Lu Herman said the men, wearing swimsuits, were holding their inner tubes when they were struck.

HARPERS FERRY, W.Va. -- The Washington Romance Writers' annual spring retreat hasn't officially begun, but already the line between reality and fantasy is getting fuzzy.It's this place, a hotel and restaurant called the Hilltop House. This place could put notions in your head, the kind you haven't considered since you crossed into curmudgeonly geezerdom and decided that the concept of the happy romantic ending should be tossed onto the same pile with those envelopes that say: "YOU MAY HAVE ALREADY WON $1 MILLION!

By Steffany Palulis : Special to the SunWhile driving through the Deep South in the 1950s, our Maryland license plates sparked the question "Are you for the North or South?" as if the Civil War was in progress at that moment. Although the question was posed with a smile, one sensed that the answer really mattered. Were we with them or against them?By then the Civil War was well behind us northerners, but clearly it was recent enough to continue to eat at these Georgians. By that time, the North had set history to rights by creating memorials of the larger battlefields -- Gettysburg, Antietam and Bull Run. But the less important sites, such as Harpers Ferry, W. Va., were sometimes stalled at a monetary crossroads, teetering between national recognition and ruins, and setting the stage for my childhood imagination.

HARPERS FERRY, W.Va -- A stubborn three-day forest fire scorched Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, tying up traffic for several hours yesterday and closing a a stretch of the Appalachian Trail.Park officials said last night that the blaze was under control. More than 20 acres was blackened just west of the historic Potomac River town."Things are much more manageable now than they were a few days ago, but obviously we're still concerned," said Marsha Starky, spokeswoman for the 2,300-acre park, where fall colors in October are as much an attraction as its history.

Rocky Gap music festThe Rocky Gap Music Festival celebrates its 10th anniversary this weekend with a lineup of country singers, family activities and an arts and crafts show.The three-day event, tomorrow through Sunday at Allegany College in Cumberland, features performances by the Mavericks, Kentucky Headhunters, Ruthie & the Wranglers and Marge Calhoun Friday. Saturday's lineup includes Sawyer Brown, Collin Raye, Kevin Sharpe, Lee Ann Womack and Lee Roy Parnell. And stepping on stage Sunday are John Michael Montgomery, Diamond Rio, Chely Wright, Wade Hayes and the Dixie Chicks.