Meshach Browning, author of Forty-Four Years of the Life of a Hunter lived in Sang Run in Garrett County, MD. By his own count, he killed 1,800 to 2,000 deer and "at least 300 bears," about 50 panthers and catamounts and scores of wolves and wildcats. He is said to have boxed a bear and wrestled with a full-grown buck. Forty years later, hunters bagged another bear near Sang Run.

Browning was born in 1781 in Frederick, MD. He married Mary McMullen, a member of one of the earliest families to settle this part of the mountains, and they had eleven children before Mary died (in 1839) in a horse riding accident. He married a second time to a widow from Cumberland, MD; and this marriage lasted 16 years, ending with her death from palsy in Blooming Rose.

Meshach died in 1859 and is buried in a cemetery along Rt. 42 at Hoyes between Friendsville and McHenry, MD. His great, great, great grandson, Buz Gosnell, along with wife, Peggy, own a lovely bed and breakfast named Bear Creek Crossing Bed & Breakfast located a short distance from Browning's final resting place in Accident, MD.

Bear Creek Crossing Bed & Breakfast is the area's only traditional European style B&B. Guests are welcome to look through a collection of photos and articles about the famous hunter. Does great, great, great grandson Buz Gosnell hunt? Yes - but not for bears as it is illegal to hunt bears at the present time in Maryland. For information about stays at Bear Creek Crossing Bed& Breakfast,

phone: 301-746-8623 or

www.bearcreekcrossingbedandbreakfast.com