History of Smokey Glen Farm

History of Smokey Glen Farm was originally a small portion of an enormous tract of land called Mitchell’s Range, patented in 1762. At that time, this was still Frederick County. Montgomery County was formed in 1776, several months after the Declaration of Independence. What is now Smokey Glen Farm was divided off from a part of the old tract in 1893, still bearing one of its original borders, the 74th line of Mitchell’s Range.

Smokey Glen Farm Barbequers, Inc. (formerly called Collegiate Barbequers, Inc.) was founded in 1953 by Dr. George B. Sweet, then a graduate student in agriculture at the University of Maryland. The new company held barbeques at the University’s Byrd Stadium football games during the middle history 1950’s. In 1958, George & Betty Sweet purchased what is now known as Smokey Glen Farm. The farm is named for the haze that forms in the morning in the lower-lying glens along the edge of the woods.

The primary intention with the purchase of the property was to have a diverse farming operation including a state of the art poultry/egg business with 13,000 laying hens and secondarily, facilities for companies and groups to hold picnics & barbeques as well as numerous other smaller operations. What is now the Barn Area was our first event site back in the late 1950’s. The events business really began to take off in the 1960’s and the Grove area was developed in 1962. By the mid 1960’s, the Sweets were faced with a dilemma in the poultry business developing from large agri-business investments on the Eastern Shore & Southern Virginia – invest big or get out altogether. The Sweets decided to go full-time into the events business and closed down the poultry operation in 1965. They revamped the poultry houses into what is now called the Pavilion Area – our largest event site as well as our kitchen & commissary facilities. In addition to the events held at Smokey Glen Farm, we have catered our old-fashioned country barbeques at such locations as the White House for the President of the United States, at the Naval Observatory for the Vice President of the United States, at Wolf Trap, and many other prominent locations.