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Fairfax Stone

Fairfax Stone Historical Monument State Park
West Virginia State Park
Fairfaxstone.jpg
Fairfax Stone
Country United States
State West Virginia
Counties Grant, Preston, Tucker
Elevation 3,169 ft (965.9 m)
Coordinates 39°11′42″N 79°29′15″W / 39.19500°N 79.48750°W / 39.19500; -79.48750Coordinates: 39°11′42″N 79°29′15″W / 39.19500°N 79.48750°W / 39.19500; -79.48750
Area 4 acres (1.6 ha)
Established 1957
 - Dedicated October 5, 1957
Owner West Virginia Division of Natural Resources
Nearest city Thomas, West Virginia
Location of Fairfax Stone Historical Monument State Park in West Virginia
Website: West Virginia State Parks & Forests

Fairfax Stone Historical Monument State Park is a West Virginia state park commemorating the Fairfax Stone, a surveyor's marker and boundary stone at the source of the North Branch of the Potomac River in West Virginia. The original stone was placed on October 23, 1746 to settle a boundary dispute between Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron and the English Privy Council concerning the Northern Neck of Virginia. It determined the proprietorship and boundaries of a large tract of mostly unsurveyed land in the English colonies of Maryland and Virginia.

Fairfax Stone Historical Monument, part of a four-acre West Virginia state park, is six miles north of Thomas, West Virginia. There are no public toilets.

The exact boundaries of the "Northern Neck Land Grant" (later called the "Fairfax Grant") had been undetermined since it was first contrived in 1649 by the then-exiled King Charles II. John Savage and his survey party had located the site of the source of the North Branch of the Potomac River (the northern boundary of the tract) in 1736, but had made no attempt to establish the western boundaries. A 1746 survey by Colonel Peter Jefferson (Thomas Jefferson's father) and Thomas Lewis resulted in both the placement of the Fairfax Stone as well as the establishment of a line of demarcation known as the "Fairfax Line", extending from the Stone to the south-east and ending at the source of the Rappahannock River, a distance of 77 miles (124 km).


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