Sep. 13--- The 227 acres of Garrett County farmland that Shane Grady and two business partners purchased for $750,000 last year are teeming with soybeans, but that's not the yield the investors had in mind.

The group was among the hundreds of county landowners who around this time last year signed lease agreements giving energy companies the right to drill in search of Marcellus Shale, a sedimentary rock containing natural gas deposits. With natural gas prices high, companies rushed to sign area residents to the agreements -- one group that signed up had 500 landowners who owned more than 36,000 acres. And talk abounded of a windfall that would enrich residents and boost local economies.

One year later, however, those hopes have been placed on hold. Many companies exercised 90-day options to back out of the lease agreements when the economy and natural gas prices went south.

"We literally bought the property and entered into the gas lease the next day," Grady said. "What's most devastating is that it's clearly the larger landowners, and the larger landowners are typically farmers, who could have used that [revenue]. It's still speculative; is the gas under there? We're told it is, and it's not going anywhere."

Joyce Bishoff, interim president for the county Chamber of Commerce, shares his frustration. She signed lease agreements for three properties totaling about 300 acres with Texas-based Lodge Energy. The agreements were returned in December, she said, with lines marked through them and a statement saying they would not be honored.

Others, Bishoff says, got no returned leases or money. "They're now in a lurch somewhere not knowing the legalities of where they stand. They're now talking to lawyers trying to figure out what their legal status is."

Lodge Energy did not return phone calls for comment.

In recent months, landowners, politicians and business people from Garrett and neighboring Allegany County (where Marcellus Shale is also purported to be found) have been readying for gas companies that may come around Western Maryland again. The counties held a joint information session Thursday night at Garrett College, the second such meeting in four months.

Landowners such as Grady say that next time around they plan to go about negotiations differently.

"The next time people are going to be a little more cautious ... and perhaps expect a little money up front," said the Oakland resident.