Ohio River Defines West Virginia’s Border
Morgantown Dominion Post
29 August 2011
Usually a river is named for the state that controls it.
But not the Ohio River, which forms more than half of the Mountain
State’s westernmost border.
The Ohio River, it turns out, is actually part of West Virginia.
And it’s all the fault of good King James I and the patent he issued
the London Company in 1609, according to Earl Core, in “The Monongalia
Story,” Volume 1.
In most cases, where a river separates two states, the legal boundary
line is in the middle of the river, local historian Kenneth Carvell
said in an essay for the March issue of The Monongalia Chronicle.
Carvell said the Virginia Company originally was granted all land west
and northwest from sea to sea, but in 1787, to comply with the
Northwest Ordinance, all lands west of the Ohio River were given to the
Continental Congress to form the Northwest Territory.
As a result, the low-water mark on the western bank of the Ohio River
became the western boundary of Virginia.
When Ohio became a state in 1803, it sought greater control over this
major waterway, considering it a key economic element.
Ohio officials appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to shift the boundary
line to the middle of the river.
The Court, however, ruled that because Virginia had owned the Ohio
River originally, it should remain a part of Virginia’s domain, Carvell
noted.
As a result, when Virginia lost its westernmost counties, counties that
became part of West Virginia, the river boundary went with them. West
Virginia became a state in 1863.
When the British kings issued patents for control of the land that
became the United States, the boundary lines weren’t necessarily very
accurate.
Carvell said West Virginia owes its Northern Panhandle to some
surveying issues: A white oak post marking a boundary was placed 20
miles east of the Ohio River, and the western boundary of Pennsylvania
was run from true north.
This left a strip of land between the boundary and the Ohio River,
which became the Northern Panhandle.
Evelyn Ryan researches and writes this column. Send ideas and
suggestons to newsroom@dominionpost.com.