Campus News

Rada connects dots on Garrett Co. secrets

JCLS presenter delves into CIA, famous visitors, story of the Big Mac

What do CIA mind experiments, famous people looking for peace and quiet, lost silver and gold, and the real story of the Big Mac have in common?

They were all part of the secrets of Garrett County explored by author James Rada, Jr. last Wednesday in Garrett College's Joan Crawford Lecture Series.

That's a lot to unpack, so let's get started.

Rada said Garrett County and the CIA crossed paths in the 1950s. Frank Olson – a bacteriologist and biological warfare scientist stationed at Camp Detrick (now Fort Detrick) – came to Garrett County to attend a conference "with eight or nine other guys . . . about a hundred yards off [Route] 219, about 30 yards from the lake."

Rada said local press were told the event was a "winter meeting of script writers, editors, authors, and lecturers of sports magazines" while attendees were informed it was a conference "to discuss such things as biological warfare and mind-control drugs."

"However, that was also a cover story," explained Rada, who is a Gettysburg-based free-lance writer. "What the CIA did, unbeknownst to these men, was to dose them with LSD. They were guinea pigs – and the LSD had side effects on Olson."

Nine days later, Olson plunged to his death from the window of the Hotel Statler in New York City.

"The CIA knew within a couple of weeks that there was...a direct causal connection between that experience at Deep Creek Lake and his death," said Rada. "His family was told that he died in relation to his work so that they could collect federal death benefits."

His death was later investigated in the mid-1970s by the Rockefeller Commission that delved into CIA activities. Rada said that investigation – as well as a new autopsy that discovered Olson had a blow to the back of his head before he fell from the window – led to Olson's cause of death being reclassified from "suicide" to "unknown."

Rada also discussed famous people who had more positive experiences in Garrett County, including scientist Albert Einstein, Dr. Jonas Salk, and President Grover Cleveland.

Einstein would come to Deep Creek Lake in the 1940s "when he needed to clear his thoughts . . . and get away from the hustle and bustle of his notoriety," according to Rada, who added, "Those were truly top-secret visits – he was a national asset, and those trips were not generally known until the 1970s."

Rada said Einstein went on "daily walks . . . just casually talking to people," telling one person, " ‘Here, you can get nearer to God.' "

Salk, who developed one of the first successful polio vaccines, began coming to Deep Creek Lake to visit friends before buying a vacation property in Garrett County.

"He loved to come out here and take long therapeutic walks," said Rada, adding that the idea for the Salk Institute came to him during one of those walks.

"He thought about building it in Garrett County before eventually building it in California," Rada explained.

President Grover Cleveland was another famous visitor, coming to Garrett County for a day of his 1886 honeymoon with Frances Folsom. He stayed at Deer Park and fished in one of earlier man-made lakes – eventually named Lake Cleveland for the president – that is now part of Deep Creek Lake.

Rada's presentation included a drawing depicting that day.

"You can see reporters there watching him fish. His new wife was the only one shown with a fish," he said.

Rada also discussed Deep Creek Lake's centennial, which is just months away.

"The hydroelectric plant started on May 26, 1925, although the lake was in construction two years before that," Rada explained.

Rada also talked about silver found in Garrett County, including George Lehman's 19th-century discovery of a rock containing silver while he was lost in northern Garrett County. Lehman didn't actually know what he had until a friend identified the rock as having silver in it, but Lehman could never retrace his steps to find that silver load.

"It turned out there was enough silver in it that it would be worth $270," said Rada. "He had the silver minted into coins that he gave to family members."

A gold mystery from the French and Indian War involving a future U.S. president – "Braddock's lost gold," according to Rada – may have also been part of the past in what eventually became Garrett County.

"[British] General [Edward] Braddock's aide-de-camp, George Washington, brought a chest of gold coins to Fort Cumberland that were supposed to be for payroll," Rada reported. "But they left Fort Cumberland on June 6, 1755, heading toward Fort Duquesne roughly parallel to the National Road before they were attacked by Indians along the route."

Braddock had split his army, with the infantry and cavalry in one group, and the troops with supplies in the other.

"They were attacked somewhere along that route between [what became] Garrett County and Fort Duquesne," said Rada. "Five hundred soldiers were killed, 500 were wounded, and just 300 survived with no harm. Only 28 Indians and French soldiers were killed and the gold was never seen again – it was supposedly buried."

Rada also explained the story of the Big Mac, including its Garrett County connection.

"They [McDonald's] sell 550 million of them a year," Rada said. "The first Big Mac sold in 1967 cost only 45 cents. However, there was some trepidation over the thought that McDonald's customers would balk at the price since they were selling hamburgers for 18 cents."

Rada said the Big Mac was the brainchild of Jim Delligatti, a Pittsburgh-area resident who eventually became a major Deep Creek Lake area business developer.

"He bought his first McDonald's [franchise] in 1957. After about 10 years, he had 12," Rada said. "He came up with this idea for a double-patty hamburger and pitched it to his regional manager, who allowed Jim to test-market it in his Uniontown store with the caveat that he had to use already approved McDonald's ingredients.

"It turned out that wasn't going to work," continued Rada. "McDonald's buns weren't the right size for the burger he envisioned. So he went rogue. He bought oversized sesame seed buns from a local bakery and cut them into thirds. That became the basis for the Big Mac – and it was an immediate hit.

"After two years on the market, the Big Mac was responsible for about 19 percent of all McDonald's sales," added Rada. "It certainly helped his restaurants since his restaurants were the only ones to have it the first couple of years. He suddenly went from having some of the lowest-performing restaurants [McDonald's franchises] in a major city to the highest-performing restaurants in a major city."

Rada said Delligatti eventually owned 48 McDonald's franchises and then "turned his attention to Garrett County," where he had a summer home.

"He was either the owner or partner in a number of businesses that are still operating today – Uno's Pizza, Arrowhead Condominiums, Honi-Honi Bar, the Garrett 8 Cinemas, and Arrowhead Market," said Rada. "The Big Mac guy helped start all those up."

Rada said Delligatti "also created the sausage-and-pancake breakfast for McDonald's and also started one of the first Ronald McDonald houses.

Notes: Rada's non-fiction books include Looking Back: True Stories of Mountain Maryland. He also recently released a blog post entitled 1899: Cursed Land in Garrett County.

Rada is also a fiction author and newspaper contributor. His newswriting has been honored by the Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association, the Associated Press, and the Maryland State Teachers Association.

More information on Rada's writings may be found on his website, www.jamesrada.com.

The Joan Crawford Lecture Series honors dynamic educator Joan R. Crawford, who died in 2010 after serving the Garrett College community for 30 years in a variety of faculty and staff roles. JCLS presentations are offered free of charge, and the public and community members are invited to attend.