| G010911B | ||||||||||||||||
| Garrett County History | ||||||||||||||||
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Fossils and Imprints |
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Through fossils and fossil imprints, geologists have been able to
establish and name various time periods of Earth’s history. The various
Eras, which are subdivided into time Periods, are Precambrian, Paleozoic,
Mesozoic, and Cenozoic, with Precambrian as the oldest dating back 575 million years.
The oldest rocks in Garrett County are of the Devonian time Period of the Paleozoic
Era, and are about 400 million years old. Majority of the rock beds which contain the
coal seams are about 320 million years old. The youngest topographic features which
may eventually become rocks are about 25,000 years old and are the result of the
last great ice sheet which moved down across eastern North America.
There are abundant marine and plant fossils, along with fossil imprints, which can be found in Garrett County. Excellent examples of marine fossils can be found in the loosely consolidated limestone deposit in the Underwood area. It contains beautiful fossils of Brachiopod (Articulata), Mollusea (Cephalopoda), Arthropoda (Trilobita), and Echinodermata (Crinoidea). Plant fossils are found in sandstone formations adjacent to the coal seams. Imprints of Lycopoda can be seen in the sand stone formation at Swallow Falls and occassionally whole pieces of Lapidodendron can be found in other places. Rare imprints or tracks of ancient creatures can be seen in Garrett County, but are almost impossible to find. One set on top of Backbone Mountain has been the object of speculation for a century and a half. A simple description of the tracks in the white sandstone is that they are about four inches long and were made by a creature having an 18 to 24 inch stride. Locally, the imprints were called “panther tracks” and it was thought that they were made by an ancient creature that was the ancestor of the panther. Following the Law of Superposition, the sandstone on top of Backbone Mountain is part of the Allegany and Pottsville formation; this makes the white sandstone over 300 million years old. Judging by identical tracks observed in other states for the same time period, the creature which made the tracks in the sandstone was probably a sea scorpion (Euryptorida). “Stone Coal” is the name which early settlers gave to the bituminous coal which was found in the Garrett County area. For many years it was only used for blacksmithing.According to Brown’s Miscellaneous Writings, the first coal mine in the area was located north of Grantsville towards Salisbury near the MD/ PA boundary line. |
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Frost Pockets |
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| In the northern part of the County, a geological condition exists which has been given the term a “frost pocket.” The configuration of the hills does not allow the normal daytime heating, producing a prolonged time of cool air over the area. This condition has allowed the continued existence of sub-arctic flora in the Cranesville Swamp and the Finzel Swamp. | ||||||||||||||||
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Indian Trails and Campsites |
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When their locations are drawn on a map, it is evident that Garrett County was criss-crossed
by Indian trails.Presumably, the trails which the Indians followed were originally the
seasonal migration paths of buffalo and elk herds. The trails gave the Indians access to
camping and trading sites during the warm months, and a route home to their
permanent towns at the end of the summer season.
As near as can be determined, the Indians came into the Garrett County area from two general locations; the Monongahela – Ohio River drainage area to the west, and the New Creek – Potomac River drainage area to the east. Evidence uncovered by floods in the Potomac River valley, indicate that some towns have been in existence for over 2,000 years. However, some phases of Indian culture, such as the mound building, that took place in other part of eastern North America seem to be absent in this area. (It is to be noted that archaeologist speculate about the natural trenches which Washington used at Fort Necessity, and the embankments of Fort Redstone at Brownsville, Pa., as being a phase of the “mound” culture.) During the Early Woodland period of Indian culture, several “Shelter cave” sites were occupied by the Indians. In 1950, a shelter cave north of Friendsville was excavated by an archaeological team from Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh, Pa. Known as “Indian Rocks” the cave is located near the headwaters of Laurel Run. It yielded a variety of stone and ceramic artifacts, including one piece of pottery that was one of the oldest ones ever found in this area; possibly dating abck to the Archaic Indian period making it up to 2,500 years old. Other pottery in the cave indicated that it had been occupied continuously for almost 1600 years. Although Cherokee, Delaware, and Shawnee Indian culture artifacts can be found through out Garrett County, evidence shows that the indigenous Mingo tribe seems to be the one which returned to the mountain top each year to hunt, fish, trade, and plant a few crops where open land was available. |
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Colonial Contacts Begin |
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Colonial settlements along the East Coast on North America, began a
gradual infusion of European culture into the life of the Indians. As some of
the East Coast tribes began moving westward, they carried with them parts of
this new cultural influence. This fact is attested by stories and diary entries of trappers
and explorers.
Two men who provided historians with a wealth of information from their writings were Tomas Cresap and Christopher Gist. They knew Indian trails and many of the local chiefs; they seem to have moved about in the wilderness of the Appalachian Mountains without being molested. Thomas Cresap had a stockade at the present site of Oldtown in Allegany County; Christoper Gist built a model town on his plantation near the present Uniontown, Pa. In 1748, Cresap was hired by the Ohio Company of Virginia to lay out a pack horse trail westward from the Wills Creek trading post (Cumberland, Md.) to Fort Redstone on the Monongahela River (Brownsville, Pa.) He employed a local tribe of Indians to do the work under the direction of Chief Nemacolin. It is one example of the gradual change of Indian culture, because they were working for wages. The pack horse path which they cut out was named Nemacolin’s Path, and roughly follows the present route U.S. #40. A trapper and hunter from the Wills Creek area, John Frazer, had a log cabin on the banks of the Monongahela River near the present city of Pittsburgh, Pa. From Geo. Washington’s diary, it was learned that an Indian lived nearby also in a cabin. |
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Troubles In The Mountains |
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Through the 1609 charter from the King of England to the London Company,
the Colony of Virginia claimed all the land west of Laurel Mountain to the Ohio
River as belonging to Virginia.
One of the benefactors of the land grants from the King of England was Lord Fairfax.In 1736, he employed Benjamin Winslow to to prepare a map of the Potomac River and to locate the “springing point” of the North Branch of the Potomac River. Winslow eventually came into the Garrett County area and located what he considered to be the westernmost “springing point” of the river. He marked the location with a pile of rock and blazed trees. This is the location of the present Fairfax Stone. Ten years later, in 1746, a second group of surveyors found the location identified by Winslow. Included in the surveying party was Peter Jefferson, father of Thomas Jefferson. However, the European conflict between France and England eventually spilled over onto the North American continent. In the mid-1700’s, Virginia felt that the French had usurped England’s rights to the Ohio River territory. In 1753, George Washington was sent by the Virginia legislature to the French forts on the Allegheny River. His task was to order the French to get out of the Virginia controlled area. They refused, and in 1754, he returned with a military force, which was defeated by the combination of French and Indian fighting men at Fort Necessity. The following year, General Edward Braddock set out with an overwhelmingnumber of British and Colonial soldiers. They got within seven miles of Fort Duquesnie but were ambushed by a combination of French soldiers and Indian warriors from the fort. They were completely defeated and in the skirmish, Braddock received a mortal wound; he died before ever getting back to Fort Cumberland. |
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Some Dates |
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Points Of Interest |
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