A friend of mine recently gave me this map that he purchased at an auction. What a find! It’s a 1936 map of Deep Creek Lake made by Frank Corliss, who was in charge of the surveying for the original land acquisition of the lake.
Labeled with roads, the businesses along the “strip” on 219 and lot owners, along with the factoid info on the right, it looks a lot like a visitor’s map to me. I haven’t been able to find much about Mr Corliss other than his attribution on a number of maps from this era, and an interesting anecdote about him winning a bet about how how far the lake would fill when it was first dammed. You can read that and a couple of other little tales from the origins of the lake here.
One particular item of note that I enjoyed seeing were all of the Boy Scout camps on the lake at the time (B.S. of A. on the map). Back in this time, it must have been the perfect setting.
You can download it here. It’s just a picture I took with my phone for now, but I’ll get it scanned and put up in the Garrett County Historical Society’s Virtual Map room soon. If you’ve read this far, I hope you’re a member of the GCHS – it’s just $25 per year! Join here if you’re not a member!
Do you have old maps, pictures, ephemera or any other old Deep Creek Lake memorabilia in a drawer or box? Let me know and if it’s something unique and notable, I’d love to get it digitized at least so that it can be enjoyed and referenced for years to come! Contact me at chris.nichols@dimesy.com