Allegany County is a county located in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 census, the population was 68,106. Its county seat is Cumberland. The name Allegany may come from a local Lenape word, welhik hane or oolikhanna, which means 'best flowing river of the hills' or 'beautiful stream'. A number of counties and a river in the Appalachian region of the U.S. are named Allegany, Allegheny, or Alleghany. Allegany County is part of the Western Maryland region of the state, and is part of the Cumberland metropolitan area.
History
The western part of Maryland (including the present Allegany County) was originally part of Prince George's County when that county was formed in 1696. This county included six current counties, and by repeated splitting, new ones were generated: Frederick from Prince George's in 1748; and Montgomery and Washington from Frederick in 1776.
Allegany County was formed in 1789 by the splitting of Washington County. At the time it was the westernmost county in Maryland, but a split in 1872 created Garrett County, the current westernmost county.
In 1899, Theodore Roosevelt, then Governor of New York, passed through Allegany County on a four ½-hour “whistle stop” tour.
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (1.3%) is water.
Allegany County lies primarily in the Ridge-and-Valley Country of the Appalachian Mountains. It is bordered to the north by the Mason–Dixon line with Pennsylvania, to the south by the Potomac River and West Virginia, to the east by Sideling Hill Creek and Washington County, Maryland, and to the west by a land border with Garrett County, Maryland. The western part of the county contains a portion of the steep Allegheny Front, which marks the transition to the higher-elevation Appalachian Plateau and Allegheny Mountain region. The town of Frostburg is located west of the Front at an elevation of nearly 2,100 feet above sea level, while the county seat of Cumberland, only eight miles away, has an elevation of only 627 feet.
Mountains
- Breakneck Hill (1,872 ft)
- Collier Mountain (1,460 ft)
- Dans Mountain (2,898 ft)
- Evitts Mountain (1,959–2,260 ft.)
- Green Ridge Mountain
- Haystack Mountain (1,240+ ft.)
- Irons Mountain
- Martin Mountain (1,974 ft)
- Nicholas Mountain (1,760 ft)
- Piney Mountain
- Polish Mountain (1,783 ft)
- Ragged Mountain (1,740 ft)
- Town Hill (2,039 ft)
- Warrior Mountain (2,185 ft)
- Wills Mountain (1,960+ ft.)
Adjacent counties
- Somerset County, Pennsylvania (northwest)
- Bedford County, Pennsylvania (north)
- Fulton County, Pennsylvania (northeast)
- Washington County (east)
- Morgan County, West Virginia (southeast)
- Hampshire County, West Virginia (south)
- Mineral County, West Virginia (southwest)
- Garrett County (west)
National protected areas
- Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park (part)