Luke, Maryland

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Luke is a very small town in Allegany County, Maryland, along the Potomac River near Westernport. It’s part of the Cumberland, Maryland–West Virginia area. The town covers about 0.31 square miles, most of which is land, and it had 85 residents in 2020.

History and name:
Luke started in the early 1770s and was first known as West Piedmont. The Davis brothers opened a saw mill there, and later William Luke founded a paper company in 1888. The town grew around mills and other factories, and the land was once an island in the river before the water path changed. The railroad named the nearby stop Luke after him.

Industry:
Luke’s economy long depended on mills, including a large paper mill that was the town’s biggest private employer. The paper mills went through several owners—West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company became Westvaco in 1969, then Meadwestvaco in 2002, and its paper business became NewPage in 2005. In 2019, Verso Corporation closed the Luke paper mill, which hit the local economy hard. The mill also caused environmental concerns, especially mercury pollution in the Potomac River.

Environmental issues and cleanup:
Starting around 2007, the mill made pollution-control upgrades. Lawsuits and investigations followed, and in 2021 Verso agreed to clean up the site and address contamination, plus pay a settlement to Maryland. Beginning in 2023, cleanup work continued on the former mill site, with an expected completion in 2024. Maryland helped ensure Luke would still have drinking water during the cleanup, arranging for water connections from nearby communities when needed.

Governance and people:
Luke is governed by a mayor and four commissioners who are elected to two-year terms. As of 2020, 85 people lived in Luke—mostly White—with about 47 housing units (35 occupied). In 2010, the town had 65 residents, all White. The town remains a small, rural community with a quiet pace of life.