4PDH- How one of the most prominent and coveted offices in the Old Dominion became the most meaningless political position in West Virginia. This seminar will offer an in-depth study of the origins of the County Surveyor and his deputies and the land grant system in the Old Dominion, the challenges they faced in surveying the western reaches of Virginia as they expanded the land grant system into the steep mountains of what is now West Virginia, the role of the county surveyor as the state was running out of land to grant, and the demise of the office in the 20th century.