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- See Western Maryland Railway for the railroad.
Western Maryland is the portion of U.S. state of Maryland that consists of Frederick, Washington, Allegany, and Garrett counties. The region is bounded by the Mason-Dixon line to the north, Preston County, West Virginia to the west, and the Potomac River to the south. There is dispute over the eastern boundary of Western Maryland however. For most residents of the Baltimore-Washington area, everything west of Frederick city is considered Western Maryland. However, the people of the more mountainous and isolated Allegany County and Garrett County consider Sideling Hill the boundary between Western Maryland and what they refer to as "down-state." According to the Census Bureau's 2007 dataset, Western Maryland (including Washington and Frederick counties) has a population of 472,039, accounting for 8.4% of the population of Maryland. Its land area is 5,683.43 km² (2,194.39 sq mi), or 22.45% percent of the state's land area. Only 21.7% of Western Maryland's residents live in the geographically isolated Allegany and Garrett counties; the other 78.3% live in suburban Frederick and Washington counties.
Western Maryland is far more rural than the rest of the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area, where most of the state's population lives; even Frederick and Washington counties, which are part of the Metro Area, are less urbanized than places closer to DC or Baltimore. Many people still perform a variety of subsistence agriculture for their food needs, and there are few towns larger than 10,000 people, the most notable exceptions being Cumberland, Frederick and Hagerstown. Western Maryland is noted for its idyllic rural landscapes in its eastern portion and the mountainous terrain in Allegany and Garrett Counties. The area is generally regarded as part of Appalachia.[1][2]
The climate is more akin to West Virginia than to any other part of Maryland. Summers tend to be milder than in the rest of the state, and winters can be brutally harsh. Temperatures in winter often drop to near or below 0 F (-18°C), and snowfall averages from 20 inches farther east to over 100 inches in the mountains. Comparably, Prince George's County, in the Washington, DC area, averages only 25 inches of snow and wintertime temperatures many times exceed 50 F (10°C).
Western Maryland has a heavily agricultural economy. Its best-known crops are the apples grown in the Allegany valley, but corn, potatoes, beans, and varieties of green-leaf vegetables are grown as well. Mixed crop and livestock farms are common, and the region has a large number of dairy cattle farms. There is however, a thriving tourist industry, and places such as Deep Creek Lake in Garrett County are frequented by many visitors every year. Garrett County is also well-known for its numerous state parks and outdoor activities; the natural snow that falls along with man-made snow allows for Maryland's only ski resort, Wisp Ski Resort.
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Sideling Hill man-made mountain pass on Interstate 68/U.S. Route 40 in the central part of Western Maryland near Hancock.
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