Okay, here is your "everything you need to know about Garrett County" post (based on the questions and answers that have been posted in this thread so far)...
Qualifications--I lived in virtually every part of Garrett County over the course of 22 years, beginning when I was 10 years old. I've been involved in most of the culture and life of the county. I'm very familiar with the businesses, politicians and people in general. I moved from GC in 1998 and have since lived in Pennsylvania and Florida. I currently reside about half an hour north of GC and still go there on occasion.
GC in general - There is no "urban" in Garrett County. The largest city is the County Seat of Oakland, boasting a population of only 2000 or so people (maybe 4-5000 by the time you add the outlying "suburbs"). Walmart just opened up in the last few years. Burger King only a while back, too. In fact, growing up in Oakland, I didn't even get McDonalds until the early 80's. There's still a lot of everyday America that you don't see there--and that is a good thing!
Population-wise, Garrett County is white. I don't mean white like Beverly Hills, I mean WHITE...more than 98% of the population is caucasian. Of the non-white population, the vast majority are transients who attend Garrett College at Deep Creek Lake, or perhaps the occasional second-home owning "tourist". There is naturally some "intolerance" to outsiders, particularly non-whites, but I can honestly say in my experience this was not nearly so much as one would expect.
Schools there are excellent, though one poster mentioned Northern Garrett schools being preferred over Southern Garrett. I attented both--elementary and middle, and one year of high school in the Northern end, and 3 years of high school in the Southern end, where I graduated. THERE IS NO COMPARISON...in my educated (pun intended) opinion the Southern Garrett schools are vastly superior (or were, when I was a student in the late 70s to mid-80s, and when I was involved in school-aged sports programs throughout the 1990s). They are also more populated (which is like saying "this thimble holds more than that thimble") and less rural. This "less rural" mentality makes up the biggest difference between the two schools. Given the choice to attend Northern or Southern...I'll choose Southern 100 out of 100 times.
There is no crime in Garrett County to speak of. This is the kind of place where you can honestly be more afraid of bear attacks than people attacks, though that is less true the closer you get to the tourist areas of Deep Creek Lake. There has always been a good police presence in the county, and crime and punishment are taken very seriously there.
It has been said that Garrett County has two seasons--winter and July. This is a bit of a stretch, but not much. Temperatures are mild throughout the summer, but when October rolls around it can get pretty cold, and it stays that way until well into May. Mostly, it SNOWS. Lots and lots of it. Fortunately, nobody maintains roads like GC, and the residents know how to drive in it so you don't often see much of a problem until, again, you get near tourists. This much is absolutely true--two feet of snow in Garrett County isn't as dangerous as two inches pretty much anywhere else on the Eastern seaboard. Six inches in a place like Pittsburgh shuts down the city. Six inches in Garrett County doesn't even slow the traffic.
From a "national" sports perspective, GC is Pittsburgh Steeler country in football (West Virginia University for colleges), Pirate and (Baltimore) Oriole country in baseball, WVU and Maryland in college basketball, and uh--did you say there are other sports? What is this "hockey" thing of which you speak?
Garrett County considers itself part of Maryland by law only. To be completely honest, the entire county feels separated from the rest of the state in many, many ways. If a GC resident is forced to identify with a state, it's usually West Virginia or Pennsylvania...but for the most part GC feels itself an entity unto itself. On the same note, GC is politically dominated by Republicans. Democrats are vastly outnumbered and the ideas and ideals of Democrats are pretty roundly dismissed as (the) lunacy (they are). Can you tell I'm a Garrett Countian?
The county newspaper is called The Republican. Need you know any more? Oh, and it's published WEEKLY. The "area" daily paper comes out of Cumberland, one county away. Most Garrett Countians read that grudgingly, and would line their birdcage with it if there was any alternative.
Job-wise, it's not a strong employment area. The construction trades, and agriculture of course, are the dominant fields. Wages are not all that high. Fortunately the cost of living (outside of the lake area) isn't that high, either.
For recreation, you simply won't find a better place to live if you enjoy outdoor activities. There are also movie theaters and the occasional "higher" forms of entertainment. If you're looking for the Opera, though...either stay put in the city, or be prepared to drive a couple of hours to reach Pittsburgh or Baltimore/Washington. The average Garrett Countian would struggle to spell Opera if you spotted him the "P-E-R-A".
County residents embrace and even occasionally flaunt their "redneck" side, but many try to at least think a bit more progressively. For an area that could be exceedingly backward, it really isn't at all. It is a rather religious area, though. When I left the county, it was still illegal to sell alcohol on Sunday.
In real estate terms, the lake has pushed prices up into extreme levels on occasion, and if you can picture a piece of rubber balloon stretched across a circular frame, with a finger poking into it in the middle stretching it to near breaking, this would represent Deep Creek Lake. The areas surrounding that experience higher-than-warranted prices, but that phenomenon decreases sharply as you get further and further away from the lake.
That gives you a pretty good rundown, and will hopefully answer most of your questions.
Oh, and given the choice whether to ever move back to Garrett County again, I would say this--in a HEARTBEAT I would do so, if the county ever finds a way to remove itself entirely from the rest of the state of Maryland. I will never move back to Maryland (a more worthless state this side of Massachusettes would be difficult to find)!
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