Editor’s Note: Deep Creek Lake in McHenry turns 100 years old in 2025. Historian James Rada Jr. will take a monthly look at Maryland’s largest lake.
More than 1,000 people were employed in the building of Deep Creek Lake, but the name you hear most often in association with the construction is Frank Corliss. He was the head engineer for the lake’s construction.
He also knew his job. Ed King tells a story in his book, “Deep Creek Lake: The Founders,” of how Corliss once won $5 (about $100 today). Arch Bittinger, the timber cutting crew foreman, thought Corliss overestimated how high the water would reach in the North Glade area, and he bet Corliss $5 that the water would never reach the “high water level.”
His belief came from the fact that a dam had been built on the river in that area and had backed up water to form a lake already. However, Corliss said that the lake would be under 30 feet of water when Deep Creek Lake filled.
It was, and Bittinger not only paid off his bet, but he had Corliss give him a surveying lesson so that he understood how Corliss had been certain of where the water would reach.
Although Corliss was not a native of Garrett County, the lake that he helped create kept bringing him back to the area that he came to call home.
Corliss was born in Boston in 1888, and he graduated from the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute in 1912. He was working for the Charles B. Holly Company, when it became a contractor to build an ambitious hydroelectric project for the Youghiogheny Hydro-Electric Company in 1922.
That brought Corliss to Garrett County for the first time as he took exacting measurements of where the lake would reach when it filled. This was needed to know what properties needed to be purchased and cleared.
He then took a job with the Eastern Land Company, which was the company that bought properties and rights of way for the lake. He lived in Oakland during this time, but his company was located in Somerset, Pennsylvania. Once the lake was completed, though, he found himself splitting his time between the two towns.
Because of his work on Deep Creek Lake, he was also sent to the Philippines for nine months to work on a water project for the American Water Works Company and C.B. Hawley Company. However, instead of building a hydroelectric plant, the companies were building a steam-powered generating plant. It also required a lot of water to operate.
In 1935, he joined the Pennsylvania Electric Company, but the company brought him to Somerset in 1937 to work as an engineer there. In 1940, he became a field engineer with the company, which sent him all over the region.
However, he still returned to Deep Creek Lake when he could. He served as a president of the Allegheny Boat Club, and when discussions started about creating a state park on the lake, Corliss surveyed the proposed property.
Then, in 1945, he was able to return to Deep Creek Lake permanently and served as the rural representative for Pennsylvania Electric Company until he retired in 1953. The company kept him on in the same capacity, although with diminished hours, until 1971.
His retirement was in name only. Not only was he still serving as Pennsylvania Electric’s rural representative for Garrett County, Corliss and his son, Frank Corliss Jr., opened Corliss and Corliss Surveying and enjoyed life near the lake he had helped create.
Corliss died on Aug. 3, 1972, at the age of 84. He is buried in Somerset County Memorial Park, which is surprising, seeing how much of his life he actually lived in Garrett County. In the end, the man who couldn’t stay away from the lake he created is now permanently kept far from it.