Weird Western Maryland

  One of my favorite place names is Contrary Knob, a 2,500-foot summit in Garrett County, between Deep Creek Lake and Savage River Reservoir. I know absolutely nothing about the origin of this name. Was the mountain itself somehow contrary, or did it become synonymous with a contrary person who lived on it? My ignorance would make this short entry even shorter, if not for the fact that “knob” is vulgar British slang for “penis” – and thus, at least since 1920, has been a British term for “an annoying, unpleasant, or idiotic person (esp. a man or boy),” so that an online search for the phrase “contrary knob” is likely to turn up a lot of insults.  The use of “knob” as an insult is becoming common in the States, too, and writer Ben Yagoda noted that it spiked online shortly after the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attack, “surely because so many knobs have been acting knobbish in this country in recent days.” “Maryland’s panhandle comprises a rolling succession of rises with f...

  One of my favorite place names is that of Dung Hill Road, which runs east-west between Foxtown Road and Bittinger Road, south of I-68 in Garrett County. I don’t know whose dunghill the name commemorates, but I know a surprising amount about dunghills in general. A dunghill was common on old-time farms. Before the advent of store-bought fertilizers, the livestock made the fertilizer, in the time-honored way of ingestion, digestion and excretion. Hence, the economic value of a dunghill. Whoever was tasked with replenishing the dunghill was also a good indicator of where that person stood in the farm’s hierarchy that day. Of course, like the words “sty” and “pigpen,” the word “dunghill” centuries ago left the farm to become a popular metaphor for anything “repulsive or degraded” (Merriam-Webster), “repugnantly filthy” (Dictionary.com), “vile” (YourDictionary.com) or “foul” (American Heritage Dictionary, Collins English Dictionary). As the folks at New Testament Baptist Chu...

The legend that 18 th -century surveyor John Savage – likely namesake of Mount Savage, Savage Mountain, Savage River, etc. – narrowly missed being killed and eaten by his cannibalistic companions originated with one of his contemporaries, the Virginia planter William Byrd II, known reverently in his time as “William Byrd of Westover.” A prolific writer of fact and fancy intermixed, Byrd reads in the 21 st century like the quintessential Southern slaveholding plantation owner, a matter-of-fact chronicler of all the cruelty, sadism, sexual predations and general cluelessness endemic to the species. His writings also ooze sarcasm for those he considered less worthy than himself – which was just about everybody. Here is the relevant John Savage passage just as Byrd wrote it, complete with the then-standard “f” for “s.” Byrd describes the 1736 expedition that surveyed the upper reaches of the Potomac River – an expedition that Byrd and other officials had commissioned – then adds this ...

The Allegany County community of Bier, population 173, is notable for its mournful name. As every undertaker knows, a bier is " a stand on which a corpse or coffin is placed" or " a coffin together with its stand," per Merriam-Webster. Funeral bier, temporarily unoccupied. Most likely, the place name Bier comes from the German surname Bier. The current county phone book, however, lists no Biers, only three Biermans. Even better, perhaps, bier is the German word for beer, so whenever I drive through Bier -- on U.S. 220 midway between Cumberland and the Germanically-named Keyser -- I think of the song "I Love Louisa," from The Band Wagon : How I love a glass of beer. (More beer!) Beer goes very good with beer. (More beer!) Alas, Hamill Kenny's otherwise invaluable The Place Names of Maryland is no help with Bier, which appears neither in the index nor in the alphabetical main text. Page 42 goes straight from Bew (Beau) Plains in Prince George's Cou...

Previously, I listed the eight Allegany County locations covered by Roadside America . The site has only two Garrett County locations. Never fear, we will do better than that! Cautionary note: Some of this information I'm linking to is out of date, or was in error to begin with, as we shall see ... Accident: Town Named Accident . " The town is known for its 'Welcome to Accident' green highway signs at the north and south ends of town." Oakland: Roadside Rocket on a Trailer . " Although it looks kind of like a real rocket, this is actually an old amusement park ride." Next: Washington County at Roadside America!