The General Assembly of Virginia in 1964 created a Commission to study and report on the true and correct boundary between Carroll and Grayson Counties, Virginia, and Surry and Alleghany Counties, North Carolina.

Pursuant to this act, the Governor appointed Colonel Samuel W. Dobyns, Professor of Civil Engineering, Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, as Chairman of the Virginia Commission and John W. Parsons, Attorney at Law, Galax, as the other Virginia member.

Ray B. Brady, Assistant Attorney General, and Philip C. Doran, Director, North Carolina Geodetic Survey, Raleigh, were appointed to represent the State of North Carolina by the Honorable Terry Sanford, then Governor of North Carolina. John B. Boatwright, Jr. and G. M. Lapsley served as staff to the Virginia Commissioners.

Your Commissioners met with the Commissioners from North Carolina in Richmond, Virginia, on 18 February, 1965. After due notice was given to the public through newspapers and correspondence with interested individuals, public hearings were held in Galax, Virginia, in Carroll and Grayson Counties, Virginia, on 2 April, 1965, and in Sparta, North Carolina, in Alleghany County, North Carolina, 3 April, 1965. Your Commissioners met again in Raleigh, North Carolina, with the Commissioners from North Carolina on 25 June, 1965.

Since the Virginia-North Carolina State Boundary Line as shown on the map prepared in 1751 by Joshua Fry and Peter Jefferson follows closely the natural water course of New River and thence to Pond Mountain, commonly accepted as the boundary by governments and private citizens, your Commissioners proceeded to ascertain as nearly as possible within the budgetary limitations imposed by the act the description of that portion of the Virginia-North Carolina State Boundary between Carroll and Grayson Counties, Virginia, and Surry and Alleghany Counties, North Carolina.

Photography of the area was obtained from the U. S. Geological Survey, the Appalachian Power Company, and the Virginia Department of Highways, with horizontal control for surveys in conjunction with the mapping of the area by the U. S. Geological Survey. A mosaic of aerial photographs of the area was prepared and all information obtained by the Commission was marked thereon. A copy of this is attached to this report as Exhibit 1.