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| Garrett County History | ||
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The Fairfax Stone |
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Included in the collection of photographs taken by W.E. Shirer in the early 1890’s, is one
which is an earlier photograph of the original Fairfax Stone monument. It is one of the vary
few surviving photographs of the monument that was erected on October 17, 1746 by a survey
party seeking the “springing point” of the Potomac River. It was needed to mark the extreme
western edge of the “Northern Neck” in the Virginia Colony that had been granted to Lord
Fairfax by English King, Charles II. The spot was chosen by a survey party in 1736 when the
trees which surrounded the spring were “blazed.” The spring was thought to be the westernmost
one which marked the beginning of the Potomac River.
Frances Deakins used this stone in 1787 as the starting point for what he intended to be the meridian line separating the State of Maryland from Virginia when he laid out the 50 acre Military Lots used to pay Maryland Revolutionary War soldiers. An interesting geographical feature came to light as the survey for the Military Lots progressed. The water from the spring at the Fairfax Stone, actually flowed westward in a curving arc, before going eastward again. This lead to a boundary line dispute which was not resolved until 1912 by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Fairfax Stone location became a popular picnic spot after the West Virginia Central Railroad completed its rail line along the Potomac River and on to Elkins, W.Va. Excursion trains would discharge passengers 2 ˝ miles from the famous stone, and they would go from the railroad station to the stone by foot or in carriages available for hire. One day in the 1880’s visitors found the stones, which formed the famous monument, scattered by vandals. Eventually they were collected and put in their original order as shown in W.E. Shirer’s photograph. Later, the stones were replaced by a single concrete monument of the 1910 boundary line survey. |
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