Qualla: Fairfax Stone Historical Monument State Park

Fairfax Stone Historical Monument State Park: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Peter Jefferson - Thomas Jefferson's father - placed a stone in the West Virginia mountains on October 23, 1746. The stone marked the source of the North Branch of the Potomac River and resolved a colonial boundary dispute between Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron, and the Privy Council of Great Britain. The original stone was almost certainly just an unmarked natural rock that Jefferson and his fellow surveyor Thomas Lewis selected from among the local outcroppings - that was how boundary stones were generally chosen in the eighteenth century. Two years later, George Washington surveyed the area himself and confirmed the placement. The stone settled the question of who owned five million acres of unsurveyed colonial land. It is still there. The original is not.

Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Fairfax Stone Historical Monument State Park: The Northern Neck Grant

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Antony-22, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Fairfax Stone story starts with Charles II of England, exiled in 1649 and in need of supporters. He granted the 'Northern Neck' of Virginia - a vast tract whose western boundary nobody had bothered to survey - to a group of his backers. By the eighteenth century, the grant ha...

Image: Antony-22 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Fairfax Stone Historical Monument State Park: The Fairfax Line

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. From the stone, Jefferson and Lewis ran the 'Fairfax Line' southeast 77 miles to the source of the Rappahannock River - the formal southern boundary of Fairfax's grant. The line cut through dense forest and steep terrain. The survey crew kept a detailed journal that survived and ...

Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Fairfax Stone Historical Monument State Park: The Stone That Walked Away

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Antony-22, CC BY-SA 4.0. The original stone disappeared from common memory after the Revolution. Boundary disputes between Maryland and Virginia in 1833 forced Virginia to relocate it - the site had been lost. Lieutenant Melcher rediscovered the stone in 1859 and reran the Fairfax Line for the two states...

Image: Antony-22 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Fairfax Stone Historical Monument State Park: Maryland v. West Virginia

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Antony-22, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Fairfax Stone has a more recent legal claim to fame. The North Branch of the Potomac flows west from its source at the stone before curving north and east toward Chesapeake Bay. That geographic quirk meant the stone marked a county corner - not part of the Maryland-West Virgi...

Image: Antony-22 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Fairfax Stone Historical Monument State Park: A Quiet Four-Acre Park

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Antony-22, CC BY-SA 4.0. Fairfax Stone Historical Monument State Park is small - four acres, six miles north of Thomas, West Virginia. The site is sparsely developed, lacking buildings or restroom facilities. The Potomac, at its source here, is a small stream emerging from under the stone itself. Visitor...

Image: Antony-22 | CC BY-SA 4.0