West Virginia Public Broadcasting – It could be argued that West Virginia has never been “owned” by her inhabitants. Before European settlement, of course, ideas of land ownership were not in vogue. Then King Charles II rewarded many loyal friends with large swaths of land and by 1730s, 800,000 acres in what would become West Virginia was owned by three land companies. For the most part, the same trend continues three hundred years later. Read
Some have argued absentee land ownership in West Virginia has been a major impediment to economic diversification for generations.
But who exactly owns what today, and to what extent? That’s the question Ted Boettner, executive director of the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, decided to pursue.
