Plats and maps purchased by the board of county commissioners in approximately 1948 from the estate of a surveyor and housed with the clerk of the circuit court for safekeeping. The rolled documents at one time were indexed and tagged with letters and numbers. Most of these tags have since fallen off, and the index has disappeared. After being in the custody of the clerk, the collection was added to with items that did not fit with existing types of records. The documents range in size from 12" x 18" to 5' x 6', although most are small enough to be flattened and placed in large folders. To date, 526 items been flattened, placed in folders, and inventoried in a preliminary fashion.

The survey plats encompass land conveyances and leases, exhibits in court cases, coal mines, quarries, mineral rights, cemeteries, and state and county boundaries. The coal mine plats often show above ground and underground layouts of the operations. Many surveys involve land and mines in West Virginia, and a few in Pennsylvania. The series includes several unofficial subdivision plats. Easement plats pertain to state and county roads, railroads, streets and sidewalks, and utilities. Topographic, tax, geodetic, soil, flood plain, and state highway maps are found in the collection, as are some architectural drawings of residences, commercial facilities, public buildings, and landscapes.

The Archives will create an electronic finding aid from the preliminary inventory and the records themselves.