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| Garrett County History | ||
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“The State Road” |
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Presently it is known as U.S. #219, but it has had several other designations in the past.
Back in 1908, the Maryland State Roads Commission began a program of repairing existing roads and building new ones throughout the state. The program was the result of increase in automobile use and a demand for better roads. In Garrett County, the National Pike was the first road to receive the benefit of this new program; it was resurfaced and the century-old bridges repaired. An old road existed southward from Keyser’s Ridge. In 1911 it was relocated and re-surfaced; by the end of 1915 work had been completed to the Maryland – West Virginia boundary line south of Red House. It was called “the State Road.” When Maryland began assigning route numbers to the roads maintained by the State Roads Commission, the State Road became known as Route 37; during the late 1930’s this was changed to U.S. # 219. Near Point View Inn, about 400 feet of the State Road was inundated by the water of Deep Creek Lake. The place where it ran into the water made an excellent boat launching spot. North of Johnny’s Bate House, a quarter-mile section of the State Road, ending at Rock Lodge Road, was inundated by the Lake; it also provided an excellent boat launching ramp. |
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Sixteen Foot Snow Drift |
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Route #38 from Sand Flat to Deer Park alternately runs through wooded areas and past open
fields. Back in February, 1936, Garrett County received a number of snow storms accompanied by
high winds. In a certain two-day period, the high winds blew the accumulated snow out of a
field beside Rt. # 38 onto the highway. At this particular spot the road passed through a
“cut” 16 feet deep, and the snow completely blocked the road with a 16 foot drift. Plows were
useless in this particular place, because there was no place to push the snow aside.
Eventually, the snow had to be dug out by hand.
The embankment which caused the snow to accumulate so deeply no longer exists; within a year, the State Roads Commission had “cut it back” so that a drift could never accumulate there again. |
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Cabin Lodge |
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One of the “night spots” beside the State Road and Deep Creek Lake was Cabin Lodge. Constructed
of logs around 1934, it was a single story “L” shaped building consisting of a large room with
tables and chairs, and another room divided into a bar and kitchen area. There was a large
screened-in porch on the back of the building which overlooked the Lake.
Before W.W. II, during the summer season, Cabin Lodge featured “Shrimp Night” every Wednesday. One of the Oakland beer distributors had a truck which made a weekly trips to Baltimore, and would return on Wednesday with American Beer and big cartons of fresh shrimp. After 9 p.m. on Wednesday evening, each customer would receive a plate full of shrimp courtesy of manager, Edward Fry. A unique feature of Cabin Lodge was its foundation. The building was constructed on top of two “draw” lime kilns that had been constructed side-by-side in the late 1800’s. Unfortunately, Cabin Lodge caught fire and burned down one winter night during the late 1950’s; however, a person walking along the shoreline of the Lake near where it stood, can still see some of the stones of the twin “draw” lime kilns which formed its foundation. |
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Stone Tavern |
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Another popular “night spot” on Deep Creek Lake was Stone Tavern at the north end of the U.S.
#219 bridge over the Lake. Built by C..M. Railey, it was a business continuation of a smaller
restaurant which had existed across the highway which Railey built in 1927. Compared to Cabin
Lodge, Stone Tavern was about double the size of its business rival.
Instead of “Shrimp Night”, Stone Tavern would occasionally feature “live” dance music on the weekends; during the winter time, this changed to “Country Music” with square dancing on Saturday nights. Stone Tavern existed until the construction of a new bridge over the Lake; it was torn down because of the proposed highway change for the new bridge’s right-of-way would have gone right through the center of the building. | ||
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