MINING STATUTES OF THE

UNITED STATES.

ORIGINAL MINING ACT.

14 Stat. 251, July 26, 1836.

(An Act Granting the Right of Way to Ditch and Canal Owners Over the Public Lands, and for Other Purposes.)

Be it enacted, etc., That the mineral lands of the public domain, both surveyed and unsurveyed, are hereby declared to be free and open to exploration and occupation by all citizens of the United States, and those who have declared their intention to become citizens subject to such regulations as may be prescribed by law, and subject also to the local customs or rules of miners in the several mining districts, so far as the same may not be in conflict with the laws of the United States.

SEC. 2. That whenever any person, or association of persons,

claim

a vein or lode of quartz, or other rock in place, bearing gold, silver, cinnabar, or copper, having previously occupied and improved the same according to the local customs or rules of miners in the district where the same is situated, and having expended in actual labor and improvements thereon, an amount of not less than $1,000, and in regard to whose possession there is no controversy or opposing claim, it shall and may be lawful for Isaid claimant or association of claimants to file in the local land office a diagram of the same, so extended laterally or otherwise as to conform to the local laws, customs, and rules of miners, and to enter such tract and receive a patent therefor, granting such mine, together with the right to follow such vein or lode with its dips, angles, and variations, to any depth, although it may enter the land adjoining, which land adjoining shall be sold subject to this condition.

SEC. 3. That upon the filing of the diagram as provided in

the

Second section of this act, and posting the same in a con

spicuous place on the claim, together with a notice of intention to apply for a patent, the register of the land office shall publocation of said claim, and shall also post such notice in his office

lish

for

a notice of the same in a newspaper published nearest to the

the period of 90 days; and after the expiration of said peif no adverse claim shall have been filed, it shall be the

riod,

duty of the surveyor general, upon application of the party, to

survey the premises and make a plat thereof, indorsed with his approval, designating the number and description of the location, the value of the labor and improvements, and the character of the vein exposed; and upon the payment to the proper officer of $5 per acre, together with the cost of such survey, plat, and notice, and giving satisfactory evidence that said diagram and notice have been posted on the claim during the said period of 90 days, the register of the land office shall transmit to the General Land Office said plat, survey, and description; and a patent shall issue for the same thereupon. But said plat, survey, or description shall in no case cover more than one vein or lode, and no patent shall issue for more than one vein or lode, which shall be expressed in the patent issued.

SEC. 4. That when such location and entry of a mine shall be upon unsurveyed lands, it shall and may be lawful, after the extension thereto of the public surveys to the limits of the premises according to the location and possession and plat aforesaid; and the surveyor general may, in extending the surveys, vary the same from a rectangular form, to suit the circumstances of the country and the local rules, laws, and customs of miners: Provided, That no location hereafter shall exceed 200 feet in length along the vein for each locator, with an additional claim for discovery to the discoverer of the lode, with the right to follow such vein to any depth, with all its dips, variations, and angles, together with a reasonable quantity of surface for the convenient working of the same as fixed by local rules: And provided further, That no person may make more than one location on the same lode, and not more than 3,000 feet shall be taken in any one claim by any association of persons.

SEC. 5. That as a further condition of sale, in the absence of necessary legislation by Congress, the local legislature of any State or Territory may provide rules for working mines involv ing easements, drainage, and other necessary means to their complete development; and those conditions shall be fully expressed in the patent.

SEC. 6. That whenever any adverse claimants to any mine located and claimed as aforesaid shall appear before the approval of the survey, as provided in the third section of this act, all proceedings shall be stayed until final settlement and adjudication, in the courts of competent jurisdiction, of the rights of possession to such claim, when a patent may issue as in other

cases.

SEC. 7. That the President of the United States be, and is hereby, authorized to establish additional land districts, and to appoint the necessary officers under existing laws, whenever he may deem the same necessary for the public convenience in executing the provisions of this act.

SEC. 8. That the right of way for the construction of highways over public lands, not reserved for public uses, is hereby granted.

SEC. 9. That whenever, by priority of possession, rights to the use of water for mining, agricultural, manufacturing, or other purposes, have vested and accrued, and the same are recognized and acknowledged by the local customs, laws, and the decisions of courts, the possessors and owners of such vested rights shall be maintained and protected in the same; and the right of way for the construction of ditches and canals for the purposes aforesaid is hereby acknowledged and confirmed: Provided, however, That whenever after the passage of this act, any person or persons shall, in the construction of any ditch or canal, injure or damage the possession of any settler on the public domain, the party committing such injury or damage shall be liable to the party injured for such injury or damage.

SEC. 10. That wherever, prior to the passage of this act, upon the lands heretofore designated as mineral lands, which have been excluded from survey and sale, there have been homesteads made by citizens of the United States, or persons who have declared their intention to become citizens, which homesteads have been made, improved and used for agricultural purposes, and upon which there have been no valuable mines of gold, silver, cinnabar, or copper discovered, and which are properly agricultural lands, the said settlers or owners of such homesteads shall have a right of preemption thereto, and shall be entitled to purchase the same at the price of $1.25 per acre, and in quantity not to exceed 160 acres; or said parties may avail themselves of the provisions of the act of Congress approved May 20, 1862, entitled “An act to secure homesteads to actual settlers on the public domain," and acts amendatory thereof.

SEC. 11. That upon the survey of the lands aforesaid, the Secretary of the Interior may designate and set apart such portions of the said lands as are clearly agricultural lands, which lands shall thereafter be subject to preemption and sale as other public lands of the United States, and subject to all the laws and regulations applicable to the same.

ORIGINAL MINING ACT---Amendment.

16 Stat. 217, July 9, 1870.

MINERAL LANDS-OCCUPATION.

An Act to Amend "An Act Granting the Right of Way to Ditch and Canal Owners Over the Public Lands, Etc."

Be it enacted, etc. That the act granting the right of way to ditch and canal owners over the public lands, and for other purposes, approved July 26, 1866, be, and the same is hereby, amended by adding thereto the following additional sections, numbered 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17, respectively, which shall hereafter constitute and form a part of the aforesaid act.

SEC. 12. That claims, usually called "placers," including all forms of deposit, excepting veins of quartz, or other rock in place, shall be subject to entry and patent under this act, under like circumstances and conditions and upon similar proceedings as are provided for vein or lode claims: Provided, That where the lands have been previously surveyed by the United States, the entry in its exterior limits shall conform to the legal subdivisions of the public lands, no further survey or plat in such case being required, and the lands may be paid for at the rate of $2.50 per acre: Provided further, That legal subdivisions of 40 acres may be subdivided into 10-acre tracts; and that two or more persons, or associations or persons, having contiguous claims of any size, although such claims may be less than 10 acres each, may make joint entry thereof: And provided further, That no location of a placer claim, hereafter made shall exceed 160 acres for any one person or association of persons, which location shall conform to the United States surveys; and nothing in this section contained shall defeat or impair any bona fide preemption or homestead claim upon agricultural lands, or authorize the sale of the improvements of any bona fide settler to any purchaser.

SEC. 13. That where said person or association, they and their grantors, shall have held and worked their said claims for a period equal to the time prescribed by the statute of limitations for mining claims of the State or Territory where the same may be situated. evidence of such possession and working of the claims for such period shall be sufficient to establish a right to a

patent thereto under this act, in the absence of any adverse claim: Provided, however, That nothing in this act shall be deemed to impair any lien which may have attached in any way whateve: to any mining claim or property thereto attached prior to the issuance of a patent.

SEC. 14. That all ex parte affidavits required to be made under this act, or the act of which it is amendatory, may be verified before any officer authorized to administer oaths within the land district where the claims may be situated.

SEC. 15. That registers and receivers shall receive the same fees for services under this act as are provided by law for like services under other acts of Congress; and that effect shall be given to the foregoing act according to such regulations as may be prescribed by the Commissioner of the General Land Office.

SEC. 16. That so much of the act of March 3, 1853, entitled "An act to provide for the survey of the public lands in Calif ornia, the granting of preemption rights, and for other purposes," as provides that none other than township lines shall be surveyed where the lands are mineral, is hereby repealed. And the public surveys are hereby extended over all such lands: Provided, That all subdividing of surveyed lands into lots less than 160 acres may be done by county and local surveyors at the expense of the claimants: And provided further, That nothing herein contained shall require the survey of waste or useless

lands.

SEC. 17. That none of the rights conferred by sections 5, 8, and 9 of the act to which this act is amendatory shall be abrogated by this act, and the same are hereby extended to all public lands affected by this act; and all patents granted, or preemption or homesteads allowed, shall be subject to any vested and accrued water right, or rights to ditches and reservoirs used in connection with such water rights, as may have been acquired under or recognized by the ninth section of the act of which this act is amendatory. But nothing in this act shall be construed to repeal, impair, or in any way affect the provisions of the "Act granting to A. Sutro the right of way and other privileges to aid in the construction of a draining and exploring tunnel to the Comstock lode, in the State of Nevada," approved July 25, 1866.