Ellerslie, MD

Ellerslie sits in the Wills Creek valley, where Maryland Route 35 runs north from Cumberland toward the Pennsylvania line. Little Allegheny Mountain rises to the west and Wills Mountain to the east, giving this Allegany County CDP a very specific shape on the map. The community is named for Elderslie in Scotland, the birthplace of William Wallace, so even the name carries a long-distance story. In practice, though, Ellerslie’s identity is local: a valley settlement with a state line close enough to make nearby Pennsylvania part of the everyday geography.

In the early twentieth century, Ellerslie had a planing mill and a Standard Oil pumping station, a pair of working landmarks that hint at the movement of timber, fuel, and freight through the valley. Today the place is tied to the Cumberland metropolitan area while keeping its own small-community address along Route 35. North of town, Pennsylvania Route 96 leads toward Hyndman and Bedford; south, Cumberland is the nearest larger center. Ellerslie’s character comes from that borderland arrangement—mountain walls, a creek valley, and two states meeting within a short drive.