This article is based off the autobiography of Meshach Browning, who lived in Garrett County during the late 18th Century and 19th Century. If you haven’t read about Meshach and his incredible stories, read them here: https://www.outdoorsmaryland.net/blog/meet-the-daniel-boone-of-western-maryland-meshach-browning
Based off of Fourty-Four Years, The Life of A Hunter.
Western Maryland looked very differently in the 1800s than it does today. Beginning in Frederick County, crossing the Monocacy River was considered a leap into the wilderness, simply referred to as “The West.” Meshach details the perils of moving his possessions over the river. Today, the Mighty Monocacy is crossed by thousands of cars every 5 minutes, most of whom don’t even give it a second thought.
Next, we get to Sideling Hill. The trek up Sideling was also considered perilous, and Browning’s wagon fell off the side of the mountain face. Miraculously, he survives unharmed, but Browning comments that this wasn’t a rare occurrence.
Reaching Garrett County, Browning begins to use terminology unused today. Perhaps his largest obstacle are the massive thickets of laurel that he says covered the mountain slopes. In fact, they were such an obstacle that any animal that walked into them was considered unattainable. Meshach was likely referring to mountain laurel and rhododendron, which are still numerous throughout Garrett County, but nowhere in the numbers Browning describes.
Next are the beech and chestnut grounds. Browning is referring to when American beech and chestnut trees would drop their nuts, attracting numerous bears and deer. These were Browning’s primary hunting grounds, and some of his most unbelievable hunting stories occur here. Today, beech trees are less numerous than they once were. The logging of Garrett County decreased stands of old-growth oak, chestnut, and coniferous trees, resulting in the rapid growth of second-growth species like maple. Today, Garrett County has many more maples than before, while oak and beech trees have returned, but not in the massive stands Browning describes. Coniferous trees like hemlock have never really recovered, and chestnut trees have been almost completely wiped out by disease.
Another commonly-described feature are the glades. Browning describes them as “the most striking feature of this county." Glades were level expanses of land between ridge lines with wet, marshy soil, tall grasses, and meadows. He called them exceptionally good for turkey hunting, and like many other settlers, grazed cattle on them. Today the glades have all but disappeared, as most were eventually cut and farmed. Today, glades are of special ecological importance and a few remaining pockets are protected. Most are not open to the public and are for scientific research only. There is a glade in the headwaters of Carmel Cove on Deep Creek Lake that is only accessible by kayak. Some other areas that provide ideas of what glades looked like are off of Red Run Road and Cunningham Swamp Wildlife Management Area.
Perhaps the most well-known feature of Garrett County is Deep Creek Lake. It’s Maryland's second most-visited vacation spot, behind Ocean City. Deep Creek Lake was created from building a dam on Deep Creek in the 1920s, but of course, that dam didn’t exist when Meshach was alive! Deep Creek (no lake yet) seems to have been a favorite spot of Browning’s, who frequently set up hunting camps with his friends and sons there. He speaks highly of the trout fishing there, saying he once caught over 100 in a day. One of his preferred hunting strategies was to lie in a canoe floating downstream, shooting at deer that drank from the creek bank. Now that Deep Creek has been long-submerged, it’s strange to think what the landscape was like before Deep Creek Lake, with its 70 miles of shoreline, existed.
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