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Permalink Reply by Erik V. on July 9, 2014 at 10:52am

Rivers you can navigate are almost always owned by the state.  In the case of the Ohio River, West Virginia controls to the low water mark on the Ohio side.  Railroad rights of way are questionable, but modern railway rights of way are considered railroad property by the railroad companies.  To my knowledge neither entity (state or railroad company), is in the leasing business, but don't quote me on that.  Not sure why, but likely legal issues don't make it feasible at least until the drilling becomes more widespread.  State, county and township roads are usually owned by the landowner who's property they are located, therefore the landowner gets the lease money and royalties.  Some deeds expressly state the acreage that the roadway occupies and your property taxes are reduced accordingly, therefore the acreage you are taxed is sometimes less than what you actually own.  A few state road  rights of way are owned by the state but this is rare.  Interstate rights of way are almost always owned by the federal government, so it's likely the same scenario as rivers and railroads.  I hope this helps.

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Permalink Reply by Appalachian on July 10, 2014 at 4:18am

Have not been able to absolutely verify yet, but what I was getting at is that if I have 200yds of river frontage on a 350' wide river, then I have approximately 1-1/2-2 acres of additional mineral rights that can be leased above and beyond what I am listed as owning on a "surface" survey.  I also have a couple of hundred yards of county road frontage which I also understand to be divided down the middle of the roadway between owners on opposite sides.  The County owns the roadbed, but not the minerals beneath it.  I have been looking into this as it could should yield an additional $10k on a lease and increase the amount of acreage to be paid royalties on if the lands fall into the unit.  This would be only a small portion of my acreage, but I ain't giving it up for free!  I suppose the O&Gs refer to this as "bonus" acreage for them as they base the amount of your royalties on the number of *surface acres shown on a plat map, which do not include roadways or riverbeds.

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