Meshach Browning, one of the earliest settlers of Western Maryland, built one of his homesteads within a mile of this spot and came to love the beauty of the Glades with his wife Mary despite the area's rattlesnakes. In Forty-Four Years of the Life of a Hunter (1859), he recalled the highest grounds of Hoop-Pole Ridge overlooking the valley to the great Back-Bone, tall grass rolling in waves, and herds of deer playing, describing much of the area that would become Deep Creek Lake. A prolific hunter, Browning killed over 2,000 deer, 500 bear, and numerous panthers, wolves, and rattlesnakes. Written with a turkey quill by candlelight, his book recounts many hunting expeditions and provides details about pioneer life in this area during the early 1800's.