Soldiers who fought in the Revolutionary War were rewarded by the state of Maryland with land "west of Fort Cumberland". The map of "military lots" assigned in 1787 shows the land grants in Garrett County, Maryland given to those who served in the war.
The collection features photographs from the Maryland National Guard era of Camp Ritchie. In 1926 the Maryland National Guard was in search of a new training site for its troops. A plot of land in the mountains of Western Maryland was suggested—it had a lake and was close to the railroad—and eventually it was chosen as the location. General Milton Reckord put Robert Frederick Barrick in charge of Camp Ritchie, named after Maryland's governor at the time, Albert C Ritchie. When construction of the camp began, the land still had two ice houses standing from the Buena Vista Ice Company.
This collection comprises the news stories published by Cumberland and Oakland newspapers at the time a B-52 bomber crashed in a snow storm on Big Savage Mountain, near Grantsville, Garrett County, on January 13, 1964. The B-52 bomber had crew of five and two thermonuclear bombs flying in it. The crash resulted in a massive search for the location of the plane, and for the crew, four of whom had ejected from the plane.
A unit of the Women's Army Corps was stationed at Fort Ritchie, Maryland after World War II. This collection shows the women in the unit from 1966 to 1974. Many of these women later served in Germany, Japan, or Vietnam. The WACs were disbanded in 1978 and then integrated with the male units of the army.
German-Jewish men, among others, who had immigrated to the United States prior to World War II were enlisted by the Army and sent to Camp Ritchie, Maryland, for counter intelligence training. Several trainings and demonstrations focused on preparing the men for a return to Germany where they would interview prisoners, gather intelligence, and urge Germans to prepare for defeat. Other trainings at Camp Ritchie included first aid, interrogation, house-to-house fighting, combat courses, photo interpretation, anti-tank gunnery, and firing ranges.