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 rial, or local regulations, not in conor unsurveyed, open to exploration, fliet therewith, governing mining occupation, and purchase by all citi- claims, are invested by said act with zens of the United States and all those the exclusive possessory right of all who have declared their intention to the surface included within the lines become such. of their locations, and of all veins, lodes, or ledges throughout their entire CATED. STATUS OF LODE CLAIMS PREVIOUSLY LO- depth, the top or apex of which lies 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. 1 4. It is to be distinctly understood, however, that the law limits the posQuickest Route to San Juan is via Knnsas Pacific Railway. 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, 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. 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 FORE ISSUED. 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. 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. 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 working thereof, the act provides that the lateral extent of locations of veins or lodes made after its passage shall in no case exceed three hundred feet on each side of the middle of the vein at the sur continued in their own direction that such planes will intersect such exterior parts of such veins or ledges, it being expressly provided, however, that all veins, lodes, or ledges, the top or 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. 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. 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. 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 reEverbody goes by the Kansas Pacific Railway to San Juan. 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 cording, and amount of work neces- from the discovery shaft on the claim sary to hold possession of a claim. It likewise requires that the location must be so distinctly marked on the ground that its boundaries may be readily traced. This is a very important matter, and locators cannot exercise too much care in defining their locations at the outset, inasmuch as the law requires that all records of mining locations made subsequent to its passage shall contain the name or names of the locators, the date of the 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. to some permanent, well known points. or objects, such, for instance, as stone monuments, blazed trees, the confluence of streams, point of interseetion of well known gulches, ravines or roads, prominent buttes, hills, etc., which may be in the immediate vicinity, and which will serve to perpetuate and fix the locus of the claim and render it susceptible of identification from the description thereof given in the record of locations in the district. 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 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 or not. 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 thereof, and in the latter case, how many feet are claimed upon each side of such discovery point. << 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 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 The Cheapest Route, by the Kansas Pacific Railway, to the great mines of San Juan. be filed for record with the proper re-ing on the surface, made by other parcorder of the district, who will, there- ties after the commencement of the upon, issue the usual certificate of lo- tunnel and while the same is being cation. 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. as an 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. TUNNEL RIGHTS. 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. 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 thereof, not previously known to exist, discovered in such tunnel, to the same extent as if discovered from the surface; and locations on the line of such 22. To avail themselves of the benefits of this provision of law, the proprietors of a mining tunnel will be required, at the time they enter cover, as aforesaid, to give proper notice of their tunnel of veins or lodes not appear-tunnel location, by erecting a substan The great Stock Route is by the Kansas Pacific Railway. |