plicant for patent, Claims which include all forms of deposit, except veins of quartz or other rock in place, are treated as placers; five hundred dollars expenditures are required on each claim, and not on each location, when applying for patent to land situated as aforesaid. Statute of limitation. The fact that a party bases his right to a patent on a claim that he has held his land for a period which satisfies the statutes of limitation of his State or Territory, does not avoid the necessity of publishing and posting notices of his application for patent as in other cases. Very respectfully, I. M. ARMSTRONG, Acting Commissioner. No. 5. Locations of placer claims made prior to July 9, 1870, upon lands over which the public surveys have not yet been extended, may be patented in any shape or to any area not in conflict with local laws or regulations. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, GENERAL LAND OFFICE, March 1, 1871. Hon. A. A. SARGENT, House of Representatives. SIR: * * * In mining districts over which the lines. of the public surveys have not yet been extended, a placer claim held and occupied according to the district regulations, and upon which not less than one thousand dollars have been expended, may, in the absence of an adverse claimant and after the usual proceedings, be surveyed, entered, and patented, whatever may be its shape or area, provided that such claim was located at a date prior to the passage of said statute of July 9, 1870, which interdicts, after that date, the location of a claim by any person, or association of persons, in extent exceeding one hundred and sixty acres, whatever the mining regulations of the district may prescribe. But upon lands which have been surveyed, no lot or claim smaller than ten acres can be patented to any person or association of persons under said act; the subdivision of forty-acre tracts into ten-acre legal subdivisions, to be effected in the manner prescribed by the law and instructions. I am, sir, very respectfully, Your obedient servant, WILLIS DRUMMOND, Commissioner. No. 6. Two or more persons owning divided or undivided interests in a placer claim may make joint application for patent thereon. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, GENERAL LAND OFFICE, WASHINGTON, D. C., October 28, 1875. Register and Receiver, Elko, Nevada. GENTLEMEN: With your letter of the eleventh ultimo, you submitted the papers in case of the application of Dudley Chase and nine others, for patent for certain placer mining ground. It appears from the papers in the case, that the several applicants own separate and distinct interests; that the said applicants are an association of persons unincorporated; that the required amount has been expended upon this claim at the joint expense of the several members of said association. An application for patent may be filed by an association of two or more persons owning divided or undivided interests in the premises for which patent is sought, and where the required improvements have been made upon the premises described in the application, jointly by the several owners, the said association of persons may receive patent therefor upon full compliance with the law and instruc Very respectfully, your obedient servant, S. S. BURDETT, Commissioner. No. 7. Until the township plat of survey approved by the Surveyor-general has been filed in the local office, the Register and Receiver will treat an application for patent on placer claim as being made for unsurveyed land. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, GENERAL LAND OFFICE, WASHINGTON, D. C., March 22, 1871. Register and Receiver, Sacramento, California. GENTLEMEN: With the Register's letter of the sixth inst. were received copies of the papers filed in the application of John C. Bower et al., for patent under the act of July 9, 1870, for what is known as the "Powell" placer claim, situate in Todd's Valley mining district, Placer county, California, and with reference to the inquiries I would reply, that if (as stated) the township plat had not been filed in your office at the date of this application, you should have considered the claim as upon unsurveyed land, and dealt with it accordingly. You are, therefore, directed to immediately notify these applicants that they will be allowed to proceed with their application, and to include in their diagram and notice only the mining ground and premises to which they hold the right of possession agreeably to the local customs, rules, or regulations of the miners in the district, or which they have by themselves, or grantors, held and worked for a period equal to the time prescribed by the statute of limitations. for mining claims in the State of California. In all cases you will deal with claims of this kind as upon unsurveyed land, until the township plat approved by the Surveyor-general shall have been filed in your office. * Very respectfully, * * WILLIS DRUMMOND, Commissioner. No. 8. 1. One notice in a newspaper of the application for patent may include a description of all tracts desired to be entered by an individual or association, provided they are in the same neighborhood, although not contig uous. 2. Diagram and notice must be posted on each parcel. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, GENERAL LAND OFFICE, WASHINGTON, November 19, 1870. Hon. A. A. SARGENT, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of yesterday, inclosing one herewith returned from S. B. McFarland, Esq., dated at Sacramento, Cal., the eleventh instant, and with reference to the subject of inquiry I have to state that where several placer claims have been surveyed by the United States for an individual or company holding the possessory right thereto, under the local laws, there is nothing to prevent the patenting of the several tracts or parcels of mineral ground thus surveyed as a single entry, and the local land officers will be instructed accordingly. Publication. With regard to the matter of newspaper publication in such cases, one notice may include a description of all the tracts or parcels desired to be entered by an individual or company holding the same, as aforesaid. But such notice must give a sufficiently accurate description of each parcel or tract applied for, as will enable other parties in the neighborhood to tell readily what mineral grounds are sought to be patented. Diagram and notice. In these cases, it is not deemed proper to make any departure from our regulations, requiring diagram and notice to be posted on the claim for ninety days, as required by law, it being considered essential that a diagram of each parcel, together with a copy of the notice of intention to apply for a patent therefor, should be posted thereon for ninety days. The notice, to be posted for a like period in the register's office, may consist of a copy of that published in the newspaper, as aforesaid. The foregoing, it is not intended, should be understood as authorizing the joint entry of parcels or claims situate at wide distances from each other in different land or mining districts, but simply to enable individuals or companies holding several placer claims in the same neighborhood, though not contiguous, to effect their entries, and have their rights adjudicated with as little expense as possible. I am, sir, very respectfully, Jos. S. WILSON, Commissioner. No. 9. What patent for placer claim conveys. GENERAL LAND OFFICE, Hon. H. F. PAGE, Placerville, Cal. SIR: Referring to your letter of the nineteenth instant, I have to state that all patents, except those issued under the provisions of the eleventh section of the mining act, contain an excepting clause, as follows, viz.: "That should any vein or lode of quartz, or other rock in place bearing gold, silver, cinnabar, lead, tin, copper, or other valuable deposit, be claimed or known to exist within the above-described premises at the date hereof, the same is expressly excepted and excluded from these presents." By the terms of the act, a patent for a placer claim conveys "all valuable minerals and other deposits within the boundaries thereof," if no veins or lodes are claimed or known to exist within the exterior limits of the claim patented at the date of the patent. In cases arising under the said eleventh section, the same excepting clause is inserted with this exception, the word "other" is inserted after the word "any." In all agricultural land patents, the following clause is inserted, viz., "subject to any vested and accrued water rights for mining, agricultural, manufacturing, or other purposes; and rights to ditches and reservoirs used in connection with such water rights, as may be recognized and acknowledged by the local customs, laws, and decisions of courts, and also subject to the right of the proprietor of a vein or lode to extract and remove his ore therefrom, should the same be found to penetrate or intersect the premises hereby granted as provided by law." No title to a mining claim can be secured under an agricultural land patent: Vide section 2258, Revised Statutes.* Very respectfully, your obedient servant, S. S. BURDETT, Commissioner. No. 10. Construction of section 10, Act of May 10, 1872. Section 2331, Revised Statutes. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, GENERAL LAND OFFICE, JOHN E. BLAINE, Esq., Surveyor-general, Montana, SIR: Inquiry having been made as to the construction given by this office to the tenth section of the mining act of May 10, 1872, the following is transmitted for your guidance. Said section delares that "where said placer claims shall be upon surveyed lands, and conform to legal subdivisions, no further survey or plat shall be required, and all placer mining claims hereafter located shall conform, as near as practicable, with the United States system of public land surveys, and the rectangular subdivisions of such surveys. As to the right of the General Land Office to issue a second patent, see No. 13, Adverse; also decision of the U. S. Supreme Court, in Moore v. Robbins, 6 Otto, 530. |