Silver Lake is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

Preston County Preston County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 Census, the population was 34,216. Its county seat is Kingwood, West Virginia, Kingwood. The county was form ...

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the B ...

, United States. Silver Lake is located along U.S. Route 219, north of

Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the A ...

Tucker County Tucker County is a county in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 6,762, making it West Virginia's fourth-least populous county. Its county seat is Parsons. The county was created in 1856 from a part of ...

. The community is named for a man-made lake of the same name, which is located within a private campground in the community. Built in 1928, the lake is retained by a small concrete

splash dam A splash dam was a temporary wooden dam used to raise the water level in streams to float logs downstream to sawmills. By impounding water and allowing it to be released on the log drive's schedule, these dams allowed many more logs to be brought ...

and is located at the headwaters of the

Youghiogheny River The Youghiogheny River , or the Yough (pronounced Yok ) for short, is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 15, 2011 tributary of the Monongahela River in the U.S. ...

. The park and campground was also built in the 1930s, and was at one time one of the more popular vacation destinations in the area, featuring camping, boating, swimming, picknicking, a restaurant and game room, a small motel, and six small vacation cabins. The park's overnight facilities were particularly popular during the 1940s and early 1950s, prior to the development of rental cabins and a large lodge at nearby

Blackwater Falls State Park Blackwater Falls State Park is located in the Allegheny Mountains of Tucker County, West Virginia, US. The centerpiece of the park is Blackwater Falls, a cascade where the Blackwater River leaves its leisurely course in Canaan Valley and enters ...

, although the vacation cabins at Silver Lake were available for nightly rentals into the late 1990s. The restaurant closed in the early 2000s and today, the park is primarily a private campground, with many camping trailers permanently placed around the lake, and the cabins rented to monthly tenants. The trailhead to

Hoye-Crest Hoye-Crest is a summit along Backbone Mountain just inside of Garrett County, Maryland. It is the highest natural point in Maryland at an elevation of . The location, named for Captain Charles E. Hoye (1876–1951), founder of the Garrett County ...

, the highest point in Maryland, is just south of Silver Lake. Hoye-Crest, the summit of

Backbone Mountain Backbone Mountain is a ridge of the Allegheny Mountains of the central Appalachian Mountain Range. It is situated in the U.S. states of West Virginia and Maryland and forms a portion of the Eastern Continental Divide. In the state of Maryland, ...

, lies along the eastern edge of the West Virginia - Maryland state line, while Silver Lake is just west of the border. The Hoye-Crest trail, a one-time logging road on private property, is about one mile (1.6 km) long with of elevation gain. Our Lady of the Pines Catholic Church, proclaimed as the "smallest church in 48 states," is in Silver Lake. The church building is a × purpose built family church with an altar and 12 one-seat pews across an aisle. The church is located near unincorporated Horse Shoe Run and Eglon, WV. Adjacent to the church is "the world's smallest mailing office," a post office that is smaller than the church. Prior to the construction of the lake in 1928, the area had been known as Breedlove. Breedlove was the southern terminus of the Preston Railroad, which hauled timber from the surrounding mountains to a large lumber mill in Crellin, Maryland. The railroad survived into the 1920s, and was last utilized to haul road construction materials for upgrades to US 219, which passes through the community. According to tradition, the community had been formerly named for John Breedlove, an early 19th-century soldier.

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Preston County, West Virginia Unincorporated communities in West Virginia