If New Wye must be anywhere (other than New York, where,
lexically, it really ought to be, but I take the point about Palermo), I vote
for the Mountain State. Recall VN's love for that "Russian something" he
detected on a muddy red road in West Virginia. It would quite in
keeping with the various "resemblers" in Pale Fire if he decided
to redistribute Cornell onto that road, between an orchard and a veil of
tepid rain.
The "prevalence of Botkins" in Virginia is interesting but
irrelevant if our Botkin is an emigre, as he surely must be. The fact that
VN called him an "American scholar of Russian descent" only reflects VN's
preferred diction -- he used it for himself too, you will recall: "I am an
American writer, born in Russia..." etc.
Regards,
J. Morris
P.S. -- And of course, as Oregon is the Beaver State, we
know where Kinbote's final motel was.