Westernport, MD

Westernport is an Allegany County town in the Georges Creek Valley, where Georges Creek meets the North Branch Potomac River across from Piedmont, West Virginia. A French military map marked the first settlement here in 1758; by 1774 the place was called Hardscrabble, and by the 1790s it had taken the name Westernport for its position as the westernmost navigable port on the Potomac. Coal, timber, and river transport later gave the town a larger industrial role.

Today the Potomac and creek valley still set the town’s boundaries and its practical concerns. Western Maryland roads connect the town with Cumberland, Piedmont, and the communities along Georges Creek, while the old rail-and-river landscape remains visible in bridges, hillsides, and compact blocks. The town’s history also carries the memory of flooding, since water can rise quickly where the creek reaches the Potomac. Schools, local government, emergency services, and small businesses fill in the modern map. Westernport is a border-valley town shaped by navigation, coal, rail, and two rivers.