# How Land Is Surveyed in West Virginia: Reading a Legal Description

> West Virginia land surveys explained for mineral owners: Virginia era grants, and a tax map that does the real work. What the legal description on your deed or division order actually means, and where to look the records up free.

Source: https://www.berlinroyalties.com/land-survey/west-virginia/
Publisher: Berlin Royalties, a veteran-owned oil and gas mineral and royalty buyer in Tulsa, Oklahoma, buying for its own account since 2014. Call or text 918-984-1645.
License: free to quote and cite with attribution to Berlin Royalties and a link to the source URL.

Land Surveys · West Virginia

## How land is surveyed in West Virginia

Virginia era grants, and a tax map that does the real work. Here is what the legal description on your deed, lease or division order is actually telling you, and where to check it for free.

[Ask a Landman, Free](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/ask-a-landman/) [What Are My Minerals Worth?](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/free-valuation/)

**West Virginia uses metes and bounds.** Virginia era grants, and a tax map that does the real work.

## No principal meridian

West Virginia has no principal meridian and no PLSS. It was part of Virginia until 1863 and inherited the Virginia system, so there is no township, range or section in a West Virginia description.

## Where title comes from

Title runs from Virginia grants before 1863 and West Virginia grants after, on the same warrant, survey and patent chain used in Virginia and Pennsylvania.

## What we see go wrong in West Virginia

West Virginia is the state where the survey system and the working identifier have come completely apart. Old metes and bounds calls to trees, stones and neighbors' lines are often unmappable on their own terms, so what actually identifies a parcel in practice is the county, the tax district and the tax map and parcel number. West Virginia is unusual in keeping separate mineral parcel tax maps alongside surface parcel maps, precisely because the mineral estate is so widely severed there. The recurring failure for out of state heirs is assuming a surface parcel number identifies their mineral interest. Those are two different parcels, with two different numbers, on two different maps. Older unmapped mineral records often locate only to a county and a district, not to a parcel at all.

## Where to look it up, free

- [West Virginia Property Search](https://www.mapwv.gov/assessment/). Free statewide assessment and property search

- [WVU Libraries West Virginia land grants](https://archives.lib.wvu.edu/repositories/2/resources/1570). Grant records. The Sims Index compiled by the Auditor's Office is the standard finding aid

- [Library of Virginia West Virginia records](https://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/wv/). Pre 1863 Virginia grants

Deeds are with the county clerks.

### Send us the description and we will read it back to you.

What it covers, how many net mineral acres it actually is, and whether anything is producing on it. Free, no obligation, and the answer does not change if you never sell anything to us. We do this every day and it usually takes us an hour.

[Ask a Landman](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/ask-a-landman/) [Get a Free Valuation](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/free-valuation/)

## Related

- [How land is surveyed in every state we work in](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/land-survey/)

- [West Virginia mineral rights](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/west-virginia/) and the [West Virginia owner's guide](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/guide/west-virginia/)

- [How to find out if you own mineral rights](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/find-out-if-you-own-mineral-rights/)

- [Depth severance](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/depth-severance/) and [the Duhig rule](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/duhig-rule-overconveyance/)

- [The mineral glossary](https://www.berlinroyalties.com/glossary/)

Compiled from BLM, state land offices, state archives and statute, current as of 2026-08. Berlin Royalties is a mineral buyer and a landman shop in Tulsa, not a law firm or a licensed surveyor. Nothing here is a boundary opinion, and a description that matters to a transaction should be run by a title attorney or a licensed surveyor in the state where the land sits.