The history – and secrets – of Deep Creek Lake will be the topic of 2025’s first Joan Crawford Lecture Series presentation.
James Rada, Jr., a Gettysburg-based free-lance writer, will present on that tantalizing topic on Wednesday, January 15th at 6:00 PM in the Performing Arts Center at Garrett College’s conference center. JCLS presentations are offered free of charge, and the public and community members are invited to attend.
Rada’s non-fiction books include Looking Back: True Stories of Mountain Maryland. He also recently released a blog post entitled 1899: Cursed Land in Garrett County. That blog centered around Joseph Friend, the 19th-century son-in-law of Western Maryland frontiersman Meshack Browning.
Two of Friend’s homes, built on the same site somewhere between Sang Run and McHenry, were destroyed in fires, with the first house fire killing two of his sons.
Friend, according to Rada’s blog, then sold the land. The purchaser’s second home – built close to the foundation of Friend’s original house – was also destroyed in a house fire.
“The unknown plot of cursed land remains waiting for the next home to be built upon it,” Rada’s post concluded.
Rada is also a fiction author and newspaper contributor. His news writing has been honored by the Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association, the Associated Press, and the Maryland State Teachers Association.
More information on Rada’s writing may be found on his website, www.jamesrada.com.
The Joan Crawford Lecture Series honors dynamic educator Joan R. Crawford, who died in 2010 after serving the Garrett College community for 30 years in a variety of faculty and staff roles.
For more information, contact Stephanie Miller at stephanie.miller@garrettcollege.edu.
