re: Tuscaloosa Marine Shale - Mineral Rights

Because most of them were purchased/swindled from poor farmers in MS in the early to mid 1900's. Unlike LA, mineral reservations are for life in MS. To own mineral rights, you really need to have family land passed down from the early 1900's that no one ever leased or sold the mineral rights.

If you really want to find out, go pull the deed at the clerks office. Then run the name of the guy who sold it to your dad. Then look at that deed and run the name of the guy who sold it to him. All the while reading each document to see if minerals were ever reserved. and so on and so on, until you get way back near the beginning of record keeping in your county.