The Fairfax Stone is one of the most significant historical landmarks in West Virginia. Located near Blackwater Falls State Park, the stone marked the western boundary of land granted to Lord Fairfax by the King of England in the 1700s. Almost two centuries later, in 1910, this stone was to be the determining factor in the final state boundary between West Virginia and Maryland.

Sitting at the source of the north branch of the Potomac River, where three counties converge upon the southern tip of Maryland, the Fairfax Stone comes as near as anything to being a cornerstone for the whole state. Some of the earliest surveys in West Virginia started from the point and some historians believe that the original stone may have been set by George Washington, a surveyor in his youth.

In March of 1957, this historic landmark became part of the West Virginia state park system when the state received four acres of land surrounding the stone as a gift from the West Virginia Central and Pittsburgh Railway Company.

The original stone, erected by Fairfax in 1746, was a small pyramid of sandstone bearing the letters “F-X.” In 1859, a surveyor named L.N. Michler wrote this description of the stone: “...The Fairfax Stone stands on the spot encircled by several small streams flowing from springs about it. It consists of a rough piece of sandstone, indifferent and friable, planted to the depth of a few feet in the ground and rising a foot or more above the surface, shapeless in form it would scarcely attract the attention of a passerby.”

However, this stone was destroyed by vandals in the 1880s, to be replaced by a concrete marker on August 12, 1910. This modern Fairfax Stone was described as “a monument three and a half feet square, two feet deep, set flush with the surface of the ground, with a height of four feet and four inches.” It was marked “FX-1746” on the south side and “1910” on the north side.

After the Conservation Commission acquired the stone in 1957, it placed a new stone -- a natural boulder with a bronze tablet -- over the spring that marks the source of the Potomac’s north branch. Today, this small historic state park marks the meeting point for Preston, Grant, and Tucker counties and for the West Virginia-Maryland border. The Fairfax Stone sits about 400 feet off the main road that runs from Thomas in Tucker County to Redhouse, Maryland.