By Marisa Olszewski
Did you know part of Maryland is in the Mississippi River watershed?
If you go about as far west as you can while staying in the state of Maryland, you will find yourself within the beautiful, rural landscape of Garrett County. As this portion of Maryland is on the western side of the Eastern Continental Divide, water doesn’t drain to the Chesapeake Bay, but rather to the Gulf of Mexico via the mighty Mississippi.
This past weekend, I went out to visit this section of our state to take part in a celebration of the river that carries that water out of Maryland. That is the Youghiogheny River.
Looking across Hwy 68 at dusk from the Youghiogheny Overlook Welcome Center at Youghiogheny River
Fifty years ago, in a legislative undertaking led by then State Senate President Steny Hoyer, the Youghiogheny River received the Wild and Scenic designation for the 21 miles of the river flowing north, through Garrett County and into Pennsylvania. (That’s correct, the Yough, as it’s commonly called, flows northward, which earned it its name in Lenape or Algonquin, roughly translating to “flowing in a contrary direction.”)
At the time, the designation was not entirely embraced by the Marylanders living along the river, and those who were around at the time can tell you stories of very contentious community meetings. Over the decades since, the law preserving the land along the river in Maryland was amended to better accommodate the landowners and community while still preserving the wild and scenic nature of the river.
Advocates for the Wild & Scenic River put on the celebration this past weekend, including the Mountain Watershed Association. Also attending the celebration were paddlers from across the region who had come to town for the 46th Annual Upper Yough Race, a nearly six-mile whitewater kayak race.
Paddlers and eco-tourists now frequent the Youghiogheny River and the towns along it, coming to enjoy the water and the beautiful mountain landscapes that surround it. Speaking with paddlers who had been out on the river the day I was there, I met one man who drove over from York, Pennsylvania, and another who told me he drives down regularly from Buffalo, New York.
It was a lot of fun getting to stop in parts of Maryland I have previously only passed by on the highway and seeing the enjoyment so many get out of the preserved rural landscapes of the region. Along my journey to Garrett County, I stopped for lunch in Hancock, Maryland (at Buddylou’s where I highly recommend the Lion’s Mane mushroom sandwich). Still in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, Hancock sits along the Potomac River. I encountered many people on bicycles enjoying the Western Maryland Rail Trail along the C&O Canal. When I got to Friendsville, Maryland, it was kayakers there for the excitement of paddling down the Yough.
Clockwise from Top Left: The Western Maryland Rail Trail; The Youghiogheny River, Friendsville, Maryland; Marisa Olszewski with Former State Senator and resident of Friendsville, Maryland, John Bambacus at the celebration of 50 years of a Wild & Scenic Youghiogheny River in Maryland; and a bridge over the C&O Canal in Hancock, Maryland
* – One additional conservation note from this road trip. I successfully made the journey in my fully electric car and was pleasantly surprised by the availability and accessibility of fast chargers that made the drive possible.