CUMBERLAND, Md.– Like many small towns in Appalachia, this place is a liberal blue spec in a conservative red county.
So I was curious to see if this hamlet could pull off an "America 250" parade that would really bring the entire community together.Amid the buzz, the flags and patriotic T-shirts, I found Melinda Kelleher, the Main Street manager who was heavily involved with the planning.When I started to ask if that was a challenge in these divisive times, I couldn’t even end my sentence before she answered, "Yes."But the town tackled this challenge, Kelleher told me."We wanted an event that could really bring the community together," she said, adding that there has been a revitalization of downtown Cumberland.
"We have had 30 new shops open."Fox News Digital columnist David Marcus (r.), with Al Fieldstein, a Maryland resident and local historian he met at the America 250 celebration in downtown Cumberland, Maryland, on June 27, 2026.(Fox News Digital/ David Marcus)Kelleher mentioned Thursday and Saturday night events all through the summer meant to bring in not just county locals, but travelers from all over America, and the beautiful foothills town is certainly worth a trip.There was real and deserved pride in her voice as we looked out over the throng, which included a man in his 70s named Al Fieldstein, a former government employee and quite competent amateur historian, I discovered.Al told me "President Benjamin Harrison walked this parade route to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Allegheny County in 1889, and I remember the parades here when I was kid, seeing the World War I veterans," he said, glancing skyward.
"They're all gone now."Near our feet, young children played, awaiting the parade.I pointed down at them and said, "That was you, once."I asked him what Cumberland’s place is in this 250-year history of our country, and he said, "We had the first national road, the first railroads.
We have always been a crossroads for America."But politics...