The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1940-01-11
Skiing Comes to Maryland

sffording easy grades to the nervous
beginner.
Reaching Area A Problem
Not the least of the immediate prob
lens in connection with the develop
ment of winter sports at New Ger
many is the question of keeping roads
open. The village is reached by turn.
ing off the Cumberland-to-Grantsville
pike, Route 40, at Hardesty's Corner,
and travel south on a partly improved
road for about six miles. Last week
ends breezes busted three-foot snow
drifts across this road, causing minor
disasters to those who ventured off the
pike minus chains.
Close cooperation with the State
Roads Commission will be necessary,
the forest wardens agree, to keep this
road well plowed out on sanded thru
out the winter In addition, Mr.. Mar
tin says that the neighboring farmers
are willing to assist automobiles at the
first shout of distress. The truth of
his claim was demonstrated in short
order when two kindly inhabitants
hitched a farm horse to my cars bum
per and towed it out of a gigantic
drift.
Arrives On His Skis
One winter sports enthusiast arrived
on his skis. This was William Ken
nedy, of Washington, D. c., who took
a wrong turning onto to an unplowed
road and stuck hopelessly in drift.
Undaunted, he put his pack on his
back and skied several miles in to the
Rangers Cabin on Friday night. Mr..
and Mrs. Martin, their three daugh-
tiers, two sons, and one grandson
adopted him for the weekend, and on
Sunday morning he went back to dig
his car out.
Chatting wit, Mr.. Martin in his hos
pitable log house, which serves as a
skiers' headquarters, one finds that
the region contains unlimited posi-
bilities for winter sportsmen. The
twelve-acres lake, for instance, in the
exact center of New Germany, could
easily be cleared for ice skaters. Just
across the road there is the recreation
hall of an abandoned CCC camp, a
large one-room building with a stage
at the end, and wide freplaces. If the
influx of visitors warrants it, Mr.. Mar
tin plans to open it very shortly as a
skiers' gathering place for soup-and-
sandwich luncheons and informal
square dances in the evenings. The
CCC barracks buildings can sleep forty
in dormitory fashion, and a wing
known as Hunters Rest could, accord
ing to Mr.. Martin, be easily fitted up tC
hold twelve to twenty.
Second Ski Trail Planned
A second downhill ski trail is plan
ned already fer construction next sum-
mer, on Poplat Lick Run, few miles
away, Plenty more open slopes are
available for SEEDING and toboggan-
ing, while older visitors prefer hiking
and snowshoeing over wooded noun,
tainsides.
The Savage river development dates
from 1927, when the State of Mary
land first began buying up old lumber
mill properties, about $4,000 acres OF
land, to convert into a State forest
In 1888, Company 326 of the Civilian
Conservation Corps was formed, and
this group of over 200 Maryland
youths set 10 work building roads
through the forest. Two years later,
under the Resettlement Administra-
ton, about forty-five farms averaging
140 acres or so each were bought up
their owners being offered new start
on better farming land in other sec
tons Of Maryland Much of this run
down property was replanted; of the
100000 seedlings planted in the next
three years, Mr.. Martin estimates that
eighty per cent are now good-sized
young trees. Most pine trees, with a
few hardwoods, were selected
Only last month the R. A. office in
Grantsville closed up, turning over its
land to the State. The Savage river
forest therefore now comprises rough
ly $4,000 acres OF mountainous, we'll
watered country in strip twenty
miles long by about seven wide. And
since the Forestry Department gets
first whack at buying farms in the vi
cinity, when and if they go on sale, the
chances are that the size of the park
will increase still further during the
coming decade.
Popular AS Summer Resort
Known for years as a summer re-
sort, the region has played host tc
thousands of fishermen and campers
from April through October annually
Winter visitors were, until recently, q
distinct rarity. When the mercury
slid "down below the cider hole", as
the natives say, New Germany hiber-
mated.
According to Mr.. Buckingham, it was
about two years ago that requests be
gan to pile up in his Cumberland office