West of the Divide

Deep Creek Lake State Park lies just west of the Allegheny Front on a large plateau known as the Tablelands or Allegany Highlands. Its location at the southernmost end of Meadow Mountain places it west of the Eastern Continental Divide and within the Mississippi River watershed. It gets its name from Deep Creek Lake, a hydroelectric project constructed on Deep Creek in the 1920s by the Youghiogheny Hydroelectric Company.

Humans have been associated with the use of this land for thousands of years. Early nomadic hunters and gatherers, followed by American Indian hunters, roamed through the mountains of Garrett County but left little record of their presence. 

Beginning in the 1700s, early settlers to the region eked a subsistence existence based on the utilization of the area's abundant natural resources. The mountains remained relatively untouched until the turn of the century when massive logging operations began stripping the land of the virgin red spruce, hemlock, white pine and yellow birch forests.

The park is the site of the historic Brant coal mine and homesite, where a restored mine entrance preserves a typical drift or adit mine. The mine was worked for several years by the Brant family and supplied bituminous coal for heating and blacksmithing in the local community.