The Winslow-Garey Wilderness Camp on Deep Creek Lake ran from 1933-1939. It was establshed as place to send a young man in your family to enjoy life in the beauty of GC with DCL to play on and in, with boating, fishing, swimming, sailing. They stayed in tents from WWI and had a cook. From the camp’s brochure: “Follow the trail to Turkey Neck. You will find here along the shores of Deep Creek Lake, wealth greater than pirates’ treasure in health, happiness, and good clean fun.”  Rob Winslow’s dad first met his mother there when she came to visit, but as she was several years younger than he was, she was not really noticed until later! 

 My husband and I first heard about Deep Creek Lake in the mid 1970s when friends of ours asked us to spend a weekend with them at their cabin. We live in Pittsburgh and our friends said that the cabin was just a two-hour drive away. It sounded great to us, till we heard that the restroom facilities were “out back”. We didn’t go. And we forgot
about Deep Creek for awhile. But then in the 1990s we started seeing advertising for things going on in Garrett County and we were interested again. So in 1998, on our 25th wedding anniversary, we made our first trip to DCL. We stayed at the Point View Inn (what a gem). And I fell in love with the area. So much so that this April, I will be making my
74th trip to Deep Creek. We have celebrated birthdays, anniversaries, and retirements there.
In addition, I now have 2 different groups of women that I take to the lake annually. One of the groups has 24 members! That crew rents 3 big houses side-by-side and we have a ball for 3 or 4 days. The other group has just 6 members and we recently had our 20th annual October trip. We usually try to be there for Autumn Glory, and this group stays
for an entire week each year. I have introduced so many Pittsburghers to your area. And we have spent so much money between house rentals, boat rentals, and restaurant meals. Folks around here say I should be on the Garrett County Chamber of Commerce.

My dad and my uncles built our cottage on Penn Point road in the early 50s…I spent my summers there till they sold it in 1981…so miss my time growing up there…We had a massive dock that had an upper deck and covered enclosure  for our boat as well as to dock 4 other visiting boats…Our cottage was prefabbed by my dad and uncles in Baldwin,Pa and the walls were trucked to MD in my dad’s panel truck..we had 7 bedrooms( still looking for old pictures of it) we nicknamed our cottage the Blue Gables as the cottage was white /with blue gable trim and window frames…it was an amazing place to grow up…here is a partial picture of out dock around 1980..

My aunt Michelle Amtower and grandmother Edith Umstot Amtower in the cove at Smith Run. Probably 1967. My great aunt (grandmother’s sister) & uncle, Helen & Melvin “Bus” Kight, were long time residents of Oakland and first built a cabin/lake house at Smith Run in the 50s.

The girl is my mother, Ann Throp Taylor.  Her father was RR Throp, a contractor from Wheeling who built their cabin on Rock Lodge Road

From her email to us: “I like looking through other people’s discarded slides for hidden gems, and I got really lucky on this one.  Sort of like the show “Storage Wars,” I buy slide carousels that at least have a hint or tease of what’s to come.  This one was kind enough to say “Deep Creek Lake” on the box.  Roughly a third of the slides were of DCL….

I absolutely remember McHenry the way it’s depicted in these pictures, but only barely.  I was born in 1959.

My grandparents vacationed at DCL after visiting several times when they brought my mom down from Johnstown for music camps.  “Fell in love, bought land.”  That was in 1950.  They bought an adjoining lot with friends and proceeded to build two cabins, by hand, over the next almost decade.  They finished the neighbor’s cabin first, then started on ours.  The neighbor built three matching fireplaces from stone they hauled out of the lake.  One for himself, one for us, and one for a third couple (also friends) who bought shortly after us.  All three fireplaces still stand and are in good working order.  Two of the houses have been rebuilt, but both new dwellings were built around the fireplaces.”

Lynn finds and restores these photos to preserve these memories of Deep Creek Lake.

This map shows all of the original owners of property that was purchased by Eastern Land Corporation, which was the real estate arm of the Youghiogheny Hydroelectric Company, the original developer of the dam and power plant. Frank Corliss, surveyor for the YHC, was the creator of this map.     This particular map hung in the power plant office until Penelec, sold the lake to the State of Maryland and was no longer responsible for issuing permits to lakefront property owners and no longer had an interest in the property ownership chain.  You can download the file here (over 30 MB)

The building of the Deep Creek Dam and bridges
Image credits:
Addie Glotfelty of Double G RV Park obtained these pictures from Brookfield Renewable US in August 26, 2014. She credits Randy Garletts, Compliance Specialist, of Brookfield Renewable US Energy for obtaining corporate permission to share the images of the construction of the Deep Creek Dam in the 1920’s.
Thanks to Mike Stemple and Sean from the Deep Creek Power House for speaking with Gesse and Addie about the history of the dam and the surrounding area.