Dalporto Land — Master Dossier

The land: Nicholas County parcels 34-02-0016-0027-0000 (469.224 ac "SUR LAUREL & KEENAN") + 34-02-0016-0015-0001 (3.520 ac "SUR KEENAN BR"). Owner: Jeannean C. Dalporto Inter Vivos Trust (prior fee owner John Secondo Dalporto, 1947–2017; his father Secondo Dalporto Sr., 1917–2001).

1. Location & boundary

⚠️ Two different boundaries — don't confuse them. (1) The FARM PROPERTY the Dalportos own (≈469 ac) — the real property line. (2) The KEENAN BRANCH SURFACE MINE permit (≈132 ac) — a separate, overlapping coal-mining permit boundary that was never issued/built. Use the property boundary for the trail map.

Farm property (authoritative):

Exact 69-vertex surveyed outline: data/dalporto_farm_boundary.geojson (WGS84; from WV GIS parcel service). Verify at mapwv.gov/parcel → search 34020016002700000000.

Mining permit (separate, never built): "Keenan Branch Surface Mine," Keenan Minerals LLC, permit S-3008-10 / S300810, NPDES WV1024558 — denied ~2013 (state) / withdrawn (federal OSMRE), never issued. Its outline is not in any public GIS (only on scanned permit maps).

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2. The estate — what the family owns

The Trust holds six Nicholas County tax tickets: 3 surface + 3 severed-mineral. This is the key finding — the family owns more than the surface.

Bottom line: the family owns the surface, the shallow (above-drainage) coal, and the oil & gas outright. Only the deep / below-drainage coal is severed away (owned by Dixie Mineral Company — the Clonch family — and only under the neighboring tracts, not the Dalporto tract). Reconciliation: 469.224 (Dalporto surface) + 16.776 (Brown neighbor subparcel) = 486.000 ac O&G footprint.

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3. Oil & gas

Six shallow (1,200–1,400 ft) vertical gas wells sit on the parcel, drilled 1975–79. The 1979 mineral owner of record was "Secondo Dalporto et al" — the family owned the gas and leased it out; two wells are named "J Dalporto #2 / #3."

• Deep (Marcellus/Utica) rights are UNLEASED, Trust-held (Nicholas Co is outside the shale fairway).

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4. Coal

• Two abandoned underground voids clip the parcel's NE corner (~10 ac): the Gilbert-seam Cari-Eagle #1 (Terry Eagle Coal, mapped 1984) and, ~160 ft above, the Eagle-seam Greenbank Mine No. 1 (1961). Most of both mines lie off-parcel east on the Keenan/Conley tracts. Scanned maps saved.
• ~54 ac of old unpermitted outcrop strip/auger mining on the parcel (pre-1977).
• The modern strip mine was never built — permit S-3008-10 denied/withdrawn (§1).
• The only mining permit ever on the parcel was a 4.92-ac prospect (F&N, "Keenan Branch Prospect," 2009).
• Severed coal ≠ your coal: Dixie Mineral Co.'s deep coal is under the neighboring tracts; the strippable coal under your land is your own above-drainage coal (leased to the coal company Keenan Minerals — a modern operator, not the historic Keenan family the branch is named for).

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5. The coal companies & the bankruptcy

• Chain of the severed coal / surface-mining right: Clearfield Bituminous Coal Corp → Seelinger & Kamm → Terry Eagle Coal → Apache Coal → F&N Construction → Keenan Minerals LLC, whose ultimate parent today is JSW Steel (India) (via Purest Energy / Periama / Planck Holdings; former Trinity Coal/Essar).

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6. Timber, water & right-of-way

• Pre-mining land use = forestland (yellow poplar/oaks). The tract's own older deeds name historic timber owners — Flynn Lumber Co. and the "W.W. Keenan Tract."
• NPDES WV1024558 never issued (EPA ECHO). The "Ragland→Brown right-of-way" records the family's own documented right to reach the property over the old haulroad out to County Route 129, where it crosses the neighboring Brown and Ragland tracts — an access easement, not a mineral conveyance. A 1978 Duke Coal Declaration of Unitization (Bk 48/105) — Duke Coal being the farm's owner immediately before the Dalportos — is likely a shallow-gas pool. No standalone blasting/dam/water-well permits.
• WV Division of Forestry logging notifications aren't online (FOIA to WVDOF Region 3, Buckhannon).

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7. History & chain of title (back to 1786)

• Modern title: 2022 Trust ← 2018 estate of John S. Dalporto ← 1973: Duke Coal Co → John, Norma & Secondo Dalporto ("565.42 ac, part fee & mineral") ← 1970: Ben P. Brown, Trustee → Duke Coal.
• 19th century: descriptions run back to 1873 (Nicholas Co Deed Book 13 — Keenan/Koontz family); the deeds recite three original surveys: John Hamilton's Grant, the Grose surveys, and a Willis Nichols survey.
• Original Virginia grants (pre-1818 Greenbrier/Kanawha Co, VA):
  • John Hamilton — founder of Nicholas County (d. 1818) — held the 500-ac "Peters Creek" grant bounding the parcel, but it's an undated, uncompleted survey (date not in any free index).
  • Oldest DATED patent naming the parcel's own creek: Henry Banks, 1,000 ac "Laurel Creek," 1786 (Virginia Land Office Grant Book 1 — the manuscript page, signed by Gov. Patrick Henry, is reproduced on the Land Grants page).
  • Wilson Cary Nicholas (the county's namesake) held a 10,785-ac "Big Laurel Cr." grant, 1795.