U.S. Route 219 winds up Backbone Mountain as drivers leave West Virginia and enter Garrett County, Maryland. The road bisects the county and reveals rolling farmland tilled by the local Mennonite community, the historic railroad town of Oakland, and the large man-made Deep Creek Lake, which is a popular regional recreational destination. Garrett County is Maryland’s high country, and U.S. Route 219 eventually reaches Interstate 68, which transports visitors east to Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and west to Pittsburgh.
“For the People: New Deal Art Along Highway 219” highlights works of art created under New Deal era programs and agencies, particularly the Treasury Section of Fine Arts, that are housed in federal buildings in towns situated on U.S. Highway 219. The online exhibit examines murals housed in U.S. post offices. Dozens of small towns […]
The Traveling 219 Project continues its Maryland series, at a place where US route 219 becomes part of a major interstate i-68, in the northern part of Garrett County. This also happens to be where rt. 219 crosses rt. 40 the historic National Road, the first federally funded road in the country, built back in […]
The town of Oakland, Maryland lies 11.5 miles north of the West Virginia-Maryland line on U.S. Route 219. The history of Oakland is linked to the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, which laid its tracks through the Allegheny Mountains of Western Maryland in the 1850s. When the original train station in Oakland burned down, the current […]
“In the days before television and the internet, traveling carnivals brought a more exciting world to the modest lives of regular folks across the country, including the rural towns of the Alleghenies. These traveling carnivals roamed from town to town, offering a brief glimpse into the extraordinary world shows, games, rides, and displays of the exotic […]
“Our cheeks are rosy and our eyeballs are dry in their sockets from the heat of the kerosene lamps, giving the only light to our conversations.” –2012, interviewer Emily Newton remembers from her visits to Pleasant Valley Maryland. “Only one group of early Maryland settlers has descendants who have never given up their distinguishing customs: These are […]
Click the map to download a high-resolution copy of the Traveling 219 map, or pick up a hard copy at one of many locations along U.S. Route 219. You may also view our interactive map of Traveling 219 stories [HERE].
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