Part 1

ARIZONA GHOST TRAILS

by

Richard J. Hinton

1969

Frontier Book Co., Publisher

Fort Davis, Texas 79734

From

The Handbook To Arizona

c1877

Limited to 1000 copies

Summary of Mining Laws, Federal, Territorial, and Local; Desert and Timber Lands; Homestead and Pre-emption Rights; Spanish and Railroad Grants. Land Offices. Officers of the Territory. Legislation on Irrigation. Artesian Wells, Mining, Etc. Routes, Distances, and Fares from and to all the Principal Points east and west, and in the Territory. Altitude of Important Points. Meteorological Tables. Mineral Springs. Southern Pacific Railroad Lands, Etc.

* * * * *

Before the passage of the Act of 1866, by Congress, the ownership of the mineral lands was retained by the nation. The first discussion of the policy of selling such lands began in 1850, the argument being to make them a source of revenue. The policy of leaving the mineral land open for private exploration and development prevailed, and remained the rule until 1866. The uncertainty of titles, etc., was urged in 1865-6, as reason for a change. Under legislation preceding that date, no title could be or was conferred to mining claims, beyond possessory rights, maintained by working and payment of a small royalty. Citizens of the United States might explore and occupy under regulations as prescribed by law. In the absence of congressional enactment, local legislation was authorized to provide necessary rules; the local customs and district rules not in conflict with the United States laws were also recognized. The law was, in reality, a license only to go upon the mineral-bearing portions of the public domain. Ownership, however, attached to the minerals extracted, and the government had no claim to them, except so far as royalty or license fees were concerned.

The Act of 1872

Is not compulsory upon miners. They are not obliged to procure a United States patent for their claims. Those who do not, hold exactly the same relations that they did before its passage, provided no adverse claim is interposed. The Revised Statutes of the United States, Sections 2,318 to 2,352, of Title “Mineral Lands”; also, “Miscellaneous” provisions ditto, embracing Sections 910, 2,238, 2,258, 2,386 and 2,406, provide that for

Quartz Mines

Any person who is a citizen of the United States, or who has declared his intention to become a citizen, and no others, may locate and hold a mining claim 1,500 linear feet along the course of any mineral vein or lode subject to location; or any association of persons, severally qualified as above, may make joint location of such claim of 1,500 feet; but in no event can a location of a vein or lode, made subsequent to the date mentioned, exceed 1,500 feet along the course thereof, whatever may be the number of persons in the company.

With regard to the extent of surface ground adjoining a lode or vein, and claimed for the convenient working of the same, it is provided that the lateral extent of location, made after May 10th, 1872, shall, in no case, exceed 300 feet on each side of the middle of the vein at the surface, and that no such surface rights shall be limited by any mining regulations to less than 25 feet on each side of the middle of the vein at the surface, except where adverse rights, existing on the 10th of May, 1872, may render such limitations necessary; the end lines of such claims to be in all cases parallel with each other.

By the foregoing it will be seen that no lode-claim, located after May 10th, 1872, can exceed a parallelogram 1,500 feet in length by 600 in width, but whether surface ground of that width can be taken depends upon the local regulations, or State or Territorial laws then in force in the mining districts; but no such local regulations, or State or Territorial laws, shall limit a vein or lode-claim to less than 1,500 feet along its course, nor can surface rights be limited to less than 50 feet in width, unless adverse claims, existing on May 10th, 1872, render such lateral limitations necessary. It is provided by the Revised Statutes 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 the districts are situated, governing the location, manner of recording, and amount of work necessary to hold possession of a claim.

In order to hold a possessory right to a location made prior to May 10th, 1872, not less than $100 worth of labor must be performed or improvements made thereon, within one year from the date of such location, and annually thereafter; in default of which the claim will be subject to re-location by any one else having the necessary qualifications, unless the original locator, his heirs, assigns, or legal representatives, have resumed work after such failure and before the re-location. The expenditures required upon mining claims may be made from the surface, or in running a tunnel for the development of such claims. The Act of February 11th, 1875, provided that where a person or company has run a tunnel for the purpose of developing a lode or lodes, the money so expended shall be considered as expended on the said lode, and the owner or owners shall not be required to perform work on the surface to hold the claim.

Individual proof of citizenship may be made by affidavit. If a company, unincorporated, by the agent’s affidavit; if a corporation, by the filing of a copy of charter or certificate of incorporation. Locators against whom no adverse rights rested on the date of the Act of 1872, shall have, on compliance with general law and recognized custom, the exclusive right to

Possession and Enjoyment

Of the surface inclosure, and of “all veins, lodes, and ledges which lie under the top or apex of such lines, extended downward vertically,” even though they in their descent extend outside the “side-lines of such surface locations.” The right to such outside parts of veins or ledges is confined to all that lies between “vertical planes drawn downward,” as described, so continued that these planes “will intersect” the exterior parts of the said “veins or ledges.” The surface of another’s claim cannot be entered by the locator or possessor of such lode or vein.

What Constitutes a Deposit.

The word “deposit” has always been construed by the Land Office to be a general term, embracing veins, lodes, ledges, placers, and all other forms in which the valuable metals have ever been discovered. Whatever is recognized as a mineral by standard authorities, where the same is found in quality and quantity sufficient to render the land sought to be patented more valuable on this account than for purposes of agriculture, is treated by the Land Office as coming within the meaning of the act. Lands, therefore, valuable on account of borax, carbonate of soda, nitrate of soda, sulphur, alum, and asphalt, it is held may be patented. The first section of the Act of 1872 says, “all valuable mineral deposits.” The sixth section uses the term “valuable deposits.” Deposits of fire-clay may be patented under the act, and so may iron deposits, which may be patented as vein or placer claims. Lands, more valuable on account of deposits of limestone, marble, kaoline, and mica than for purposes of agriculture, may be patented as mineral lands.

Miners’ Form of Notice.

We hereby give notice that we have this ---- day of ---- A. D., 187-, located this, the (“Centennial”) lode. We claim 1,500 feet in and along the vein, linear and horizontal measurement.

We claim 1,200 feet along the vein, running in a northwesterly course from the discovery shaft, and 300 feet running along the vein southeasterly from the discovery shaft. We also claim 150 feet on each side of the vein from center of crevice as surface ground.

W. ---- M. ----, } Locators. H. ---- C. ----. }

The Act of 1872 provides that no lode-claim can be recorded until after the discovery of a vein or lode within the limits of the ground claimed. The claimant should, therefore, prior to recording his claim, unless the vein can be traced on the surface, sink a shaft, or run a tunnel or drift to a sufficient depth therein to discover and develop a mineral-bearing vein, lode or crevice; should determine, if possible, the general course of such vein in the direction from the point of discovery, in which direction he will be governed in making the boundary of his claim on the surface; and should give the course and direction as nearly as practicable from the discovery shaft on the claim to some permanent, well-known points or objects, such as, for instance, stone monuments, blazed trees, the confluence of streams, 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 location in the district. He 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 what 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 the other side thereof; and in the latter case, how many feet are claimed upon each side of such discovery point. The following diagram of surface boundaries, etc., of a lode, will aid the locator in this work: