Page images
PDF
EPUB

to final judgment, and that, should such adverse claimant fail to do so, his adverse claim will be considered waived and the application for patent be allowed to proceed upon its merits.

84. When an adverse claim is filed as aforesaid, the register or receiver will endorse upon the same the precise date of filing, and preserve a record of the date of notifications issued thereon; and thereafter all proceedings on the application for patent will be stayed, with the exception of the completion of the publication and posting of notices and plat and the filing of the necessary proof thereof, until the controversy shall have been finally adjudicated in court or the adverse claim waived or withdrawn.

85. Where an adverse claim has been filed and suit thereon commenced within the statutory period and final judgment rendered determining the right of possession, it will not be sufficient to file with the register a certificate of the clerk of the court setting forth the facts as to such judgment, but the successful party must, before he is allowed to make entry, file a certified copy of the judgment roll, together with the other evidence required by section 2326, Revised Statutes.

86. Where such suit has been dismissed, a certificate of the clerk of the court to that effect or a certified copy of the order of dismissal will be sufficient.

87. After an adverse claim has been filed and suit commenced, a relinquishment or other evidence of abandonment of the adverse claim will not be accepted, but the case must be terminated and proof thereof furnished as required by the last two paragraphs.

88. Where an adverse claim has been filed, but no suit commenced against the applicant for patent within the statutory period, a certificate to that effect by the clerk of the state court having jurisdiction in the case, and also by the clerk of the circuit court of the United States for the district in which the claim is situated, will be required.

APPOINTMENT OF SURVEYORS FOR SURVEY OF MINING CLAIMS AND CHARGES.

89. Section 2334 provides for the appointment of surveyors to survey mining claim, and authorizes the commissioner of the general land office to establish the rates to be charged for surveys and for newspaper publications. Under this authority of law the following rates have been established as the maximum charges for newspaper publications in mining

cases:

(1) Where a daily newspaper is designated the charge shall not exceed seven dollars for each ten lines of space occupied, and where a weekly newspaper is designated as the medium of publication, five dollars for the same space will be allowed. Such charge shall be accepted as full payment for publication in each issue of the newspaper for the entire period required by law.

It is expected that these notices shall not be so abbreviated as to curtail the description essential to a perfect notice, and the said rates established upon the understanding that they are to be in the usual body type used for advertisements.

(2) For the publication of citations in contests or hearings involving the character of lands the charges shall not exceed eight dollars for five publications in weekly newspapers or ten dollars for publications in daily newspapers for thirty days.

90. The surveyors general of the several districts will, in pursuance of said law, appoint in each land district as many competent surveyors for the survey of mining claims as may seek such appointment, it being distinctly understood that all expenses of these notices and surveys are to be borne by the mining claimants and not by the United States. The

statute provides that the claimant shall also be at liberty to employ any United States mineral surveyor to make the survey. Each surveyor appointed to survey mining claims before entering upon the duties of his office or appointment shall be required to enter into a bond of not less than $5,000 for the faithful performance of his duties.

91. With regard to the platting of the claim and other office work fu the surveyor general's office, that officer will make an estimate of the cost thereof, which amount the claimant will deposit with any assistant United States treasurer or designated depository in favor of the United States treasurer, to be passed to the credit of the fund created by "individual depositors for surveys of the public lands," and file with the surveyor general duplicate certificates of such deposit in the usual

manner.

92. The surveyors general will endeavor to appoint surveyors to survey mining claims so that one or more may be located in each mining district for the greater convenience of miners.

93. The usual oaths will be required of these surveyors and their assistants as to the correctness of each survey executed by them.

The duty of the surveyor ceases when he has executed the survey and returned the field notes and preliminary plat thereof with his report to the surveyor general. He will not be allowed to prepare for the mining claimant the papers in support of an application for patent, or otherwise perform the duties of an attorney before the land office in connection with a mining claim.

The surveyors general and local land officers are expected to report any infringement of this regulation to this office.

94. Should it appear that excessive or exorbitant charges have been made by any surveyor or any publisher, prompt action will be taken with the view of correcting the abuse.

FEES OF REGISTERS AND RECEIVERS.

95. The fees payable to the register and receiver for filing and acting upon applications for mineral-land patents are five dollars to each officer, to be paid by the applicant for patent at the time of filing, and the like sum of five dollars is payable to each officer by an adverse claimant at the time of filing his adverse claim. (Sec. 2238, Rev. St. par. 9.)

(Paragraphs 96, 97 and 98, are superseded by the general circular instructions of June 10, 1908.)

HEARINGS TO DETERMINE CHARACTER OF LANDS.

99. The rules of practice in cases before the United States district land offices, the general land office, and the department of the interior, will, so far as applicable, govern in all cases and proceedings arising in contests and hearings to determine the character of lands.

100. Public land returned by the surveyor general as mineral shall be withheld from entry as agricultural land until the presumption arising from such a return shall be overcome by testimony taken in the manner hereinafter described.

101. Hearings to determine the character of lands:

(1) Lands returned as mineral by the surveyor general. When such lands are sought to be entered as agricultural under laws which require the submission of final proof after due notice by publication and posting, the filing of the proper nonmineral affidavit in the absence of allegations that the land is mineral will be deemed sufficient as a preliminary requirement. A satisfactory showing as to character of land must be made when final proof is submitted.

In case of application to enter, locate, or select such lands as agricultural, under laws in which the submission of final proof after due publication and posting is not required, notice thereof must first be given by publication for sixty days and posting in the local office during the same period, and affirmative proof as to the character of the land submitted. In the absence of allegations that the land is mineral, and upon compliance with this requirement, the entry, location, or selection will be allowed, if otherwise regular.

(2) Lands returned as agricultural and alleged to be mineral in character.

Where as against the claimed right to enter such lands as agricultural it is alleged that the same are mineral, or are applied for as mineral lands, the proceedings in this class of cases will be in the nature of a contest, and the practice will be governed by the rules in force in contest cases.

(Paragraphs 102 to 104, inclusive, are superseded by appropriate instructions relative to nonmineral proofs in railroad, state, and forest lien selections contained in separate circulars.)

105. At hearings to determine the character of lands, the claimants and witnesses will be thoroughly examined with regard to the character of the land; whether the same has been thoroughly prospected; whether or not there exists within the tract or tracts claimed any lode or vein of quartz or other rock in place bearing gold, silver, cinnabar, lead, tin, or copper, or other valuable deposit which has ever been claimed, located, recorded, or worked; whether such work is entirely abandoned, or whether occasionally resumed; if such lode does exist, by whom claimed, under what designation, and in which subdivision of the land it lies; whether any placer mine or mines exist upon the land; if so, what is the character thereof, whether of the shallow-surface description, or of the deep cement, blue lead, or gravel deposits; to what extent mining is carried on when water can be obtained, and what the facilities are for obtaining water for mining purposes; upon what particular ten-acre subdivisions mining has been done, and at what time the land was abandoned for mining purposes, if abandoned at all. In every case, where practicable, an adequate quantity or number of representative samples of the alleged mineral-bearing matter or material should be offered in evidence, with proper identification, to be considered in connection with the record, with which they will be transmitted upon each appeal that may be taken. Testimony may be submitted as to the geological formation and development of mineral on adjoining or adjacent lands and their relevancy.

106. The testimony should also show the agricultural capacities of the land, what kind of crops are raised thereon, and the value thereof, the number of acres actually cultivated for crops of cereals or vegetables, and within which particular ten-acre subdivision such crops are raised; also which of these subdivisions embrace the improvements, giving in detail the extent and value of the improvements, such as house, barn, vineyard, orchard, fencing, etc., and mining improvements.

107. The testimony should be as full and complete as possible; and in addition to the leading points indicated above, where an attempt is made to prove the mineral character of lands which have been entered under the agricultural laws, it should show at what date, if at all, valuable deposits of minerals were first known to exist on the lands.

108. When the case comes before this office, such decision will be made as the law and the facts may justify. In cases where a survey is necessary to set apart the mineral from the agricultural land, the proper party, at his own expense, will be required to have the work done by a reliable and competent surveyor to be designated by the surveyor general. Application therefor must be made to the register and receiver, accompanied by a description of the land to be segregated and the evidence of service upon the opposite party of notice of his intention to have such 2B & A49

segregation made. The register and receiver will forward the same to this office, when the necessary instructions for the survey will be given. The survey in such case, where the claims to be segregated are vein or lode claims, must be executed in such manner as will conform to the require ments in section 2320, Revised Statutes, as to length and width and parallel end lines.

109. Such survey when executed must be properly sworn to by the surveyor, either before a notary public, Uuited States commissioner, officer of a court of record, or before the register or receiver, the deponent's character and credibility to be properly certified to by the officer administering the oath.

110. Upon the filing of the plat and field notes of such survey with the register and receiver, duly sworn to as aforesaid, they will transmit the same to the surveyor general for his verification and approval, who, if he finds the work correctly performed, will furnish authenticated copies of such plat and description both to the proper local land office and to this office, made upon the usual drawing-paper township blank.

The copy of plat furnished the local office and this office must be a diagram verified by the surveyor general, showing the claim or claims segregated, and designating the separate fractional agricultural tracts in each 40-acre legal subdivision by the proper lot number, beginning with No. 1 in each section, and giving the area in each lot, the same as provided in paragraph 37 in the survey of mining claims on surveyed lands.

111. The fact that a certain tract of land is decided upon testimony to be mineral in character is by no means equivalent to an award of the land to a miner. In order to secure a patent for such land, he must proceed as in other cases, in accordance with the foregoing regulations. Blank forms for proofs in mineral cases are not furnished by the general land office.

112.

DISTRICT OF ALASKA.

Section 13, Act of May 14, 1898, according to native-born citizens of Canada, "the same mining rights and privileges" in the district of Alaska as are accorded to citizens of the United States in British Columbia and the northwest territory by the laws of the Dominion of Canada, is not now and never has been operative, for the reason that the only mining rights and privileges granted to any person by the laws of the Dominion of Canada are those of leasing mineral lands upon the payment of a stated royalty, and the mining laws of the United States make no provision for such leases.

113. For the sections of the Act of June 6, 1900, making further provision for a civil government for Alaska, which provide for the establishment of recording districts and the recording of mining locations; for the making of rules and regulations by the miners and for the legalization of mining records; for the extension of the mining laws to the district of Alaska, and for the exploration and mining of tide lands and lands below low tide; and relating to the rights of Indians and persons conducting schools or missions, see page 21 of this circular.

MINERAL LANDS WITHIN NATIONAL FORESTS.

114. The act of June 4, 1897, provides that "any mineral lands in any forest reservation which have been or which may be shown to be such, and subject to entry under the existing mining laws of the United States and the rules and regulations applying thereto, shall continue to be sub

This

ject to such location and entry," notwithstanding the reservation. makes mineral lands in the forest reserves subject to location and entry under the general mining laws in the usual manner.

The act also provides that "The Secretary of the Interior may permit, under regulations to be prescribed by him, the use of timber and stone found upon such reservations, free of charge, by bona fide settlers, miners, residents, and prospectors for minerals, for firewood, fencing, buildings, mining, prospecting, and other domestic purposes, as may be needed by such persons for such purposes; such timber to be used within the State or Territory, respectively, where such reservations may be located.”

Transfer of National Forests.

Act of February 1, 1905 (33 Stat. 628).

The secretary of the department of agriculture shall, from and after the passage of this act, execute or cause to be executed all laws affecting public lands heretofore or hereafter reserved under the provisions of section twenty-four of the act entitled "An act to repeal the timberculture laws, and for other purposes," approved March 3, 1891, and acts supplemental to and amendatory thereof, after such lands have been so reserved, excepting such laws as affect the surveying, prospecting, locating, appropriating, entering, relinquishing, reconveying, certifying, or patenting of any such lands. (For further information see I'se BookForest Service.)

SURVEYS OF MINING CLAIMS.

General Provisions.

115. Under section 2334, Revised Statutes, the U. S. surveyor general "may appoint in each land district containing mineral lands as many competent surveyors as shall apply for appointment to survey mining claims."

116. Persons desiring such appointment should therefore file their applications with the surveyor general for the district wherein appointment is asked, who will furnish all information necessary.

117. All appointments of mineral surveyors must be submitted to the commissioner of the general land office for approval.

118. The surveyors general have authority to suspend or revoke the commissions of mineral surveyors for cause. Before final action, however, the matter should be submitted to the commissioner of the general land office for approval.

119. Such surveyors will be allowed the right of appeal from the action of the surveyor general in the usual manner. Such appeal should be filed with the surveyor general, who will at once transmit the same, with a full report, to the general land office.

120. Neither the surveyor general nor the commissioner of the general land office has jurisdiction to settle differences, relative to the payment of charges for field work, between mineral surveyors and claimants. These are matters of private contract and must be enforced in the ordinary manner, i. e., in the local courts. The department has, however, authority to investigate charges affecting the official actions of mineral surveyors. and will, on sufficient cause shown, suspend or revoke their appointment.

« PreviousContinue »