Keyser’s Ridge - Living with Extreme Weather - Keyser's Ridge, Maryland
N 39° 41.650 W 079° 14.798
17S E 650336 N 4395282
This America's Byways Placed Marker is located at the entrance to the Keyser's Ridge McDonald's (4098 National Pike / ALT US Rte. 40) in Garrett County Maryland near Interchange 14 of Interstate 68
Waymark Code: WMHMWG
Location: Maryland, United States
Date Posted: 07/24/2013
Views: 1
Keyser’s Ridge - Living with Extreme Weather - Keyser's Ridge, Maryland
This marker: This historical marker was placed by America's Byways, a federally funded project and details the extreme weather that is here in this section of Western Maryland as travelers to the current alignment of US Route 40 enter and exit Interstate 68 and come or head to or from Pennsylvania.
MARKER TEXT Reads
Keyser’s Ridge
Living with Extreme Weather
“I saw the wind blow so hard on Keyser’s Ridge, that it took six men to hold the hair on one man’s head.”
In the early days of the National Road, this stretch was often “snowed up” with drifts up to twenty feet deep. Stagecoaches and freight wagons were stopped here for days at a time. When they could travel, they sometimes left the blocked roadbeds and rolled across the nearby “skirting glades.”
Keyser’s Ridge is no place for the faint hearted. It tops a bald, bleak range, the last of three mountains west of Cumberland that are nearly 3,000 feet high. The weather here is extreme. Dense fog, howling winds, and deep snow tracks.
In spite of the treacherous winter weather, numerous inns were tucked into the eastern slope of the mountain. They have welcomed hardy travelers throughout the seasons since the early nineteenth century.