{"id":2620,"slug":"fairfax-stone-davis-west-virginia","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["The Fairfax Stone is the boundary that made a state — the 1746 surveyor's marker at the Potomac's head spring that marked Lord Fairfax's western grant and became the Maryland-West Virginia line. The Supreme Court confirmed it in 1912; the fifth stone stands there now.","The stone was the fix — the 'Ffx' inscription that marked the headwaters, the boundary that decided which river was the Potomac's main stem, the marker that made the Northern Neck's 5 million acres measurable.","The stone is still there — the four-acre state park, the fifth marker on the same spot, the junction of three counties. The file keeps the stone: the 1746 planting, the 1912 confirmation, and the boundary that's still the line.","Fairfax Stone is the archive's boundary file — the Potomac's head spring, the colonial grant's western edge, and the marker that made the map."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["Fairfax Stone is the archive's boundary file — the 1746 marker, the Supreme Court case, and the stone that's still the state line.","A stone that marked a boundary keeps its spot — the file's suggestion being that Fairfax's hold is the headwaters: the Potomac's source, the 76.5-mile line, and the marker that's still the boundary."]}],"name":"Fairfax Stone","aliases":[],"type":"SITE","type_label":"Site","cats":["LOCAL_FOLKLORE","HISTORIC_LANDMARK"],"groups":["legends"],"desc":"The 1746 stone that drew the colonial boundary—and still does.","full_desc":"Fairfax Stone is a site in Davis, West Virginia. The 1746 stone that drew the colonial boundary—and still does. It sits in the archive under historic landmarks and local folklore. The dossier holds 1 reported claim and 1 documented fact — documented record and retelling kept side by side. The site is open to visitors. For HauntHunt it is exactly the kind of file the archive exists for: a real place, a real record, and a story still being told.","address":null,"city":"Davis","county":null,"state":"West Virginia","postal":null,"region":"South","lat":39.12789,"lon":-79.460333,"coord_kind":"CITY","status":"ACTIVE","access":"PUBLIC","access_notes":null,"ownership":null,"website":null,"phone":null,"year_built":null,"year_opened":null,"year_closed":null,"year_demolished":null,"designation":null,"current_use":"Park / natural site","research_notes":"WV lore batch; VERIFY task auto-queued.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"MEDIUM","score":59.4,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.65,"historical_confidence":0.8,"source_quality":0.3999999999999999,"paranormal_claim_provenance":0.8,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0.7,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[{"id":2148,"type":"HISTORICAL_LEGEND","description":"The stone’s survey is documented; the lore is border memory. Fairfax Stone in Davis, West Virginia carries the report the way old places do — as part of its identity. The press reported it; the reporting is documented, the phenomenon isn't. The report is preserved in sources like 'Fairfax Stone'. The tale is the site's other archive — oral, embroidered, and outlasting the documents.","evidence":"MEDIA_REPORTED","evidence_label":"Media reported","entity":null,"where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.8,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Fairfax Stone","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairfax_Stone","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]}],"history":[{"description":"The 1746 survey marker is documented; the boundary is real. A documented history gives the file real substance; this entry is part of that spine. The fact is historically verified — the part of the file that doesn't need hedging. The detail is preserved in 'Fairfax Stone'. The detail belongs to the verified spine of the entry.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":"1746","date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Fairfax Stone","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairfax_Stone","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"legends":[],"entities":[],"events":[],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"tour_availability":"Verify before visiting","notes":"Site access varies; verify before visiting.","last_verified_at":"2026-09-18 11:32:55","source":{"name":"HauntHunt generic access guidance","url":"https://haunthunt.com/about#access-guidance","publisher":"HauntHunt editorial","type":"DIRECTORY","authority":2}},"sources":[{"name":"Fairfax Stone","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairfax_Stone","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}],"conflicts":[],"wiki":{"title":"Fairfax Stone Historical Monument State Park","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairfax_Stone_Historical_Monument_State_Park","desc":"Park in Preston County, West Virginia, US","extract":"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. The original stone was placed on October 23, 1746, to settle a boundary dispute between Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron and the Privy Council of Great Britain concerning the Northern Neck of Virginia. It determined the proprietorship and boundaries of a large tract of mostly unsurveyed land in the British colonies of Maryland and Virginia.","img":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9d/Fairfax_Stone_2020d.jpg/960px-Fairfax_Stone_2020d.jpg?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=api&utm_content=thumbnail","score":71,"lat":39.195,"lon":-79.4875},"counts":{"claims":1,"history":1,"legends":0,"entities":0,"sources":1}}