Transportation museum to feature history of movement

Photo by Jay Ferguson

Exhibits to include 1927 Oakland fire truck, county’s first Flying Scot sailboat

Megan Miller Cumberland Times-News

Oakland — OAKLAND — Museum goers in Garrett County will soon have the chance see everything from the county’s first snowmobile to an actual surrey with a fringe on top.

The Garrett County Historical Society and Museum plans to break ground this week on a new Museum of Transportation. The facility, to cost over $1 million, will house unique items and artifacts from the county’s long history of movement on land, water and even in the air.

“In the beginning, we only had three or four vehicles, but once we made the announcement, offers started coming in,” said Robert Boal, president of the historical society.

Now the fleet includes the omnibus carriage used to carry wealthy visitors from the train station to the luxurious Deer Park Hotel; Oakland’s first fire truck, a 1927 LaFrance known as Engine No. 1; and the county’s first snowmobile, a 1964 machine that cost $1,000 and was so expensive at the time that the dealer couldn’t sell it.

But the crowning jewel and center of a new exhibit on the history of Deep Creek Lake is the first Flying Scot sailboat ever manufactured in the county, dating back to 1957.

The boat — officially No. 4, because three prototypes were made — had traveled all the way to Chicago, where it spent 42 years before it was located and recovered for the museum.

The collection also includes a surrey donated by the Naylor family and originally sold in Oakland from Naylor’s Hardware.

The same Naylor family made the new museum possible. Though the historical society is responsible for furnishings and displays, Boal explained, the building itself is being funded by the Howard and Audrey Naylor Trust, through funds administered by the Cumberland-based Community Trust Foundation.

The Naylors lived in Garrett County until 1961, and the trust supports history and education projects in the Appalachian region.

“Above all, they wanted their gift to stress education,” Boal said.

The facility will also include a media room, where lectures and group sessions can be held, he said.

The new museum, to be built by Gnegy Construction, will be located along the north side of Liberty Street in Oakland, beside the existing museum. The original museum will also remain open and houses exhibits of general county history.

Construction on the new museum should be completed within a year, Boal said.

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