The Potomac River has long been considered the boundary between Maryland and Virginia. However, old and new court battles have raised the questions, when the river begins to shift and expose new land does the boundary also shift.
Potomac Shores, a corporation that owns land along the Potomac in Maryland, claimed to own a 150-foot strip of land that emerged on the southern side of the Potomac River bank as the river changed course. This area, known as Potomac Wayside, was commonly used as an
exit point by rafting companies, running river tours out of Harpers Ferry in West Virginia. They would have their rafters exit the river and walk overland to the waiting buses that would take them back upstream. Potomac Shores tried to charge the rafting companies $2 a head for each customer who exited the river at Potomac Wayside. They claimed that a deed, created in 1873, states that the boundary of the property was the dividing line between Maryland and Virginia, which at the time included the still submerged land of the now exposed Potomac Wayside.
After the rafting companies refused to pay, Potomac Shores filed a lawsuit in 2011. The court ruled in favor of the rafting companies stating that even though the the course of the Potomac River changes and exposes new, previously submerged, land (that when under water would have been considered Maryland territory) the boundary remains the southern border of the Potomac River. Therefore, any newly emerged land belongs to Virginia.
Read the full article: Border Wars: Courts settle latest skirmish over Maryland-Virginia line
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