Savage Land Grant
Rewarded Soldiers

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A very important date in the settlement of the Tri-State occured
in December 1772 when King George III granted over 27,000
acres of land to soldiers of the French and Indian War
known as the Savage Land Grant.

In an effort to recruit men for the Virginia Regiment of the
British Army, Governor Dinwiddle of Virginia in 1754
propsed that the wilderness lands be distributed to any
soldier that would serve.

The boundary of this land was along the Ohio River on the
Virginis (now West Virginia) from the mouth of Catletts Creek
(Catlettsburg, Kentucky), past the Big Sandy River to a point
above nine mile (Greenbottom) and up both sides of the Big
Sandy river to the Forks (Fort Gay, West Virginia and Louisa,
Kentucky). This stripe of land did not go beyond the ridge tops
and in most places was not more than two miles wide.

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