LAND OFFICE RULES UNDER THE ACT OF CONGRESS MAY 10TH, 1874, AND NOW IN FORCE. 1. It will be perceived that the first, so long as they comply with the laws section of said act leaves the mineral of Congress and with State, Territo lands in the public domain, surveyed or unsurveyed, open to exploration, occupation, and purchase by all citizens of the United States and all those who have declared their intention to become such. rial, or local regulations, not in confliet therewith, governing mining claims, are invested by said act with the exclusive possessory right of all the surface included within the lines of their locations, and of all veins, lodes, or ledges throughout their entire STATUS OF LODE CLAIMS PREVIOUSLY LO- depth, the top or apex of which lies CATED. 2. By an examination of the several sections of the foregoing act it will be seen that the status of lode claims located previous to the date thereof is not changed with regard to their extent along the lode or width of surface, such claims being restricted and governed both as to their lateral and linear extent by the State, Territorial or local laws, customs, or regulations which were in force in the respective districts at the date of such locations, in so far as the same did not conflict with the limitations fixed by the mining statute of July 26, 1866.14 Stat. 251. 3. Mining rights acquired under such previous locations are, however, enlarged by said act of May 10, 1872, in the following respect, viz: The locators of all such previously taken veins or lode, their heirs and assigns, inside of such surface lines extended downward vertically, although such veins, lodes or ledges may so far depart from a perpendicular in their course downward as to extend outside the vertical side lines of such locations at the surface, it being expressly provided, however, that the right of possession to such outside parts of said veins or ledges shall be confined to such portions thereof as lie between vertical planes drawn downward as aforesaid, through the end-lines of their locations so continued in their own direction that such planes will intersect such exterior parts of such veins, lodes or ledges; no right being granted, however, to the claimant of such outside portion of a vein or ledge to enter upon the surface location of another claimant. 4. It is to be distinctly understood, however, that the law limits the pos Quickest Route to San Juan is via Knnsas Pacific Railway. sessory rights to veins, lodes or ledges other than the one named in the original location, to such as were not ad versely claimed at the date of said Act of May 10, 1872, and that where such other vein or ledge was so adversely claimed at that date, the right of the party so adversely claiming is in no way impaired by said act. formed the labor, or made the improvements as required by said act, may, at the expiration of the year, give such delinquent co-owner personal notice in writing, or notice by publication in the newspaper published nearest the claim, for at least once a week for ninety days; and if upon the expiration of ninety days after such notice. in writing, or upon the expiration of one hundred and eighty days after the first newspaper publication of notice, the delinquent co-owner shall have failed to contribute his proportion to meet such expenditure or improvements, his interest in the claim, by law, passes to his co-owners who have made the expenditures or improvements as aforesaid. 5. From and after the date of said act of Congress, in order to hold the possessory title to a mining claim previously located and for which a patent had not been issued, the law requires that ten dollars shall be expended annually in labor or improvements on each claim of one hundred feet on the course of the vein or lode until a patent shall have been issued therefor; but where a number of such claims are held in common upon the same vein PATENTS FOR VEINS OR LODES HERETO or lode the aggregate expenditure that would be necessary to hold all the claims, at the rate of ten dollars per hundred feet, may be made upon any one claim; a failure to comply with this requirement in any one year sub jecting the claim upon which such failure occurred to relocation by other parties, the same as if no previous location thereof had ever been made, unless the claimants under the original location shall have resumed work thereon after such failure and before such re-location. FORE ISSUED. 7. Rights under patents for veins or lodes heretofore granted under previous legislation of Congress, are enlarged by this act, so as to invest the patentee, his heirs or assigns, with title to all veins, lodes, or ledges throughout their entire depth, the top or apex of which lies within the end and side boundary lines of his claim on the surface, as patented, extended downward vertically, although such veins, lodes, or ledges may so far depart from a perpendicular in their 6. Upon the failure of any one of course downward as to extend outside several co-owners of a vein, lode, or the vertical side lines of the claim at ledge, which has not been patented, to the surface. The right to possession contribute his proportion of the ex- to such outside parts of such veins or penditures necessary to hold the claim ledges to be confined to such portions. or claims so held in ownership in theeeof as lie between vertical planes common, the co-owners who have per- drawn downward through the endVeta, the highest railroad point in the world, is reached via Kansas Pacific Railway. lines of the claim at the surface, so lode, and claimed for the convenient continued in their own direction that working thereof, the act provides that such planes will intersect such exter- the lateral extent of locations of veins ior parts of such veins or ledges, it or lodes made after its passage shall in being expressly provided, however, no case exceed three hundred feet on each that all veins, lodes, or ledges, the top side of the middle of the vein at the suror apex of which lies inside such sur-face, and that no such surface rights face locations, other than the one shall be limited by any mining regunamed in the patent, which were ad-lations to less than twenty-five feet on versely claimed at the date of said act, each side of the middle of the vein at are excluded from such conveyance the surface, except where adverse by patent. 8. Applications for patents for mining claims pending at the date of the act of May 10, 1872, may be prosecuted to final decision in the General land office, and where no adverse rights are effected thereby, patents will be issued, in pursuance of the provisions of said act. MANNER OF LOCATING CLAIMS ON VEINS ACT OF MAY 10, 1872. 9. From and after the date of said act, any person who is a citizen of the United States, or who has declared his intention to become a citizen, may locate, record, and hold a mining claim of fifteen hundred linear feet along the course of any mineral vein or lode subject to location; or an association of persons, severally qualified as above, may make joint location of such claim of fifteen hundred feet, but in no event can a location of a vein or lode made subsequent to the act exceed fifteen hundred feet along the course thereof, whatever may be the number of persons composing the association. 10. With regard to the extent of surface ground adjoining a vein or rights existing at the date of said act may render such limitation necessary, the end lines of such claims to be in all cases parallel to each other. 11. By the foregoing it will be perceived that no lode claim located after the date of said act can exceeed a parallelogram fifteen hundred feet in length by six hundred feet in width, but whether surface-ground of that width can be taken, depends upon the local regulations or State or Territorial laws in force in the several mining districts; and that no such loċal regulations or State or Territorial laws shall limit a vein or lode claim to less than fifteen hundred feet along the course thereof, whether the location is made by one or more persons, nor can the surface rights be limited to less than fifty feet in width, unless adverse claims existing on the 10th day of May, 1872, render such lateral limitations necessary. 12. It is provided in said act that the miners of each district may make rules and regulations not in conflict with the laws of the United States, or of the State or Territory in which such districts are respectively situated, governing the location, manner of re Everbody goes by the Kansas Pacific Railway to San Juan. cording, and amount of work neces- from the discovery shaft on the claim sary to hold possession of a claim. It to some permanent, well known points. likewise requires that the location or objects, such, for instance, as stone must be so distinctly marked on the monuments, blazed trees, the conground that its boundaries may be fluence of streams, point of interseereadily traced. This is a very impor- tion of well known gulches, ravines or tant matter, and locators cannot exer- roads, prominent buttes, hills, etc., cise too much care in defining their which may be in the immediate vicinlocations at the outset, inasmuch as ity, and which will serve to perpetuate the law requires that all records of and fix the locus of the claim and renmining locations made subsequent to der it susceptible of identification its passage shall contain the name or from the description thereof given in names of the locators, the date of the the record of locations in the district. location, and such a description of the claim or claims located, by reference to some natural object or permanent monument, as will identify the claim. 13. The said act requires that no lode claim can be recorded until after the discovery of a vein or lode within the limits of the ground claimed; the object of which provision is evidently to prevent the encumbering of the district mining record with useless locations before sufficient work has been done thereon to determine whether a vein or lode has been really discovered or not. 15. In addition to the foregoing data, the claimant should state the names of adjoining claims, or if none adjoin, the relative positions of the nearest claims; should drive a post or erect a monument of stones at each corner of his surface ground, and at the point of discovery, or discovery shaft, should fix a post, stake or board, upon which should be designated the name of the lode, the name or names of the locators, the number of feet claimed, and in which direction from the point of discovery, it being essential that the location notice filed for record, in addition to the foregoing description, should state whether the entire claim of fifteen hundred feet is taken on one side of the point of discovery, or whether it is partly upon thereof, and in the latter case, how many feet are claimed upon each side of such discovery point. 14. The claimant should, therefore, prior to recording his claim, unless the vein can be traced upon the surface, sink a shaft, or run a tunnel or drift to a sufficient depth therein to discover and develop a mineral-bear-one and partly upon the other side ing vein, lode, or crevice, should determine, if possible, the general course of such vein in either direction from the point of discovery, by which direction he will be governed in marking the boundaries of his claim on the surface, and should give the course and distance as nearly as practicable The Cheapest Route, by the Kansas Pacific Railway, to the great mines of 16. Within a reasonable time, say twenty days after the location shall have been marked on the ground, notice thereof, accurately describing the claim, in the manner aforesaid, should San Juan. corder of the district, who will, thereupon, issue the usual certificate of location. be filed for record with the proper re-ing on the surface, made by other parties after the commencement of the tunnel and while the same is being prosecuted with reasonable diligence, shall be invalid, but failure to prosecute the work on the tunnel for six months shall be considered abandonment of the right to all undiscovered veins or lodes on the line of said tunnel. 17. In order to hold the possessory right to a claim of fifteen hundred feet of a vein or lode located as aforesaid, the act requires that until a patent shall have been issued therefor, not less than one hundred dollars' worth of labor shall be performed or improvements made thereon during each year, in default of which the claim shall be subject to relocation by any other party having the necessary qualifications, unless the original locator, his heirs, assigns, or legal representatives, have resumed work thereon, after such failure and before such relocation. as an 20. The effect of this section is simply to give the proprietors of a mining tunnel, run in good faith, the possessory right to fifteen hundred feet of any blind lodes cut, discovered or intersected by such tunnel, which were not previously known to exist, within three thousand feet from the face or point of commencement of such tunnel, and to prohibit other par18. The importance of attending ties, after the commencement of the to these details in the matter of loca- tunnel, from prospecting for and tion, labor and expenditure, will be making locations of lodes on the line more readily perceived when it is un- thereof and within said distance of derstood that a failure to give the sub-three thousand feet, unless such lodes ject proper attention, may invalidate | appear upon the surface, or were prethe claim. viously known to exist. TUNNEL RIGHTS. 21. The term "6 face," as used in said section, is construed and held to mean the first working face formed in the tunnel, and to signify the point at which the tunnel actually enters cover, it being from this point that the three thousand feet are to be counted, upon which prospecting is prohibited as aforesaid. 19. The fourth section of the act provides that where a tunnel is run for the development of a vein or lode or for the discovery of mines, the owners of such tunnel shall have the right of possession of all veins or lodes within three thousand feet from the face of such tunnel on the line 22. To avail themselves of the benthereof, not previously known to exist, efits of this provision of law, the prodiscovered in such tunnel, to the same prietors of a mining tunnel will be reextent as if discovered from the sur- quired, at the time they enter cover, as face; and locations on the line of such aforesaid, to give proper notice of their tunnel of veins or lodes not appear-tunnel location, by erecting a substanThe great Stock Route is by the Kansas Pacific Railway. |