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the claim needs be a simple notice only, claiming the lode without details, except where State statutes direct more; but the notice filed for record must be more complete, in accordance with section 2324 of the Revised Statutes, which says, "all records of mining claims hereafter made 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." The best practice is to word the location notice placed upon the ground the same as the one filed for record. The one filed should contain all the information required by the Federal and State statutes and district rules. The location of the claim and its boundaries should be described as fully as possible, so that it may be easily found and distinguished. It has been held that the requirement that the claim be "located by reference to some natural object or permanent monument as will identify the claim" is met by the claim corner posts or monuments. But the Statute undoubtedly means some more permanent, striking, and immovable monument, and in consequence the claim should be tied to, or located by, some easily identified or well known object. Legal verbiage and provisos in the location certificate should be dispensed with, for it cannot be understood how any greater rights or privileges can be obtained than those given by the simple statement that the ground is located as a lode mining claim. The requirements of all the State statutes have been gathered into the following list:

1. Name of lode or claim.

2. Name or names of locators.

3. Date of location.

4. Length of claim on each side of discovery or location monument.

5. Width of claim on each side of lode or centre line.

6. Course of lode or centre line.

7. Reference to natural object or permanent monument as will identify the claim.

8. Location and description of each corner.

9. Name of mining district, county, and State.

10. Intention to locate as a mining claim (New Mexico only).

11. Affidavit of citizenship, familiarity with the ground, and that none is claimed adversely, and that discovery work has been performed (Idaho only).

12. Distance and direction from discovery monument to natural object or permanent monument (Idaho only).

13. Verify location notice as an affidavit (Montana only).

14. Dimensions and location of discovery work (Nevada only). 15. Affidavit of performance of the discovery work (Oregon only).

16. Reference to quarter-section or section corner, if upon surveyed land (Wyoming only).

The following is a good, brief, but comprehensive form of a location certificate, and contains the first nine requirements, to which should be added any of the additional seven requirements which may be necessary. Fig. 3 is a diagram of the claim.

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I have this tenth day of July, 1910, located the Exchequer Lode Mining Claim on this ground, claiming 1500 ft. in length along an easterly and westerly lode line through this discovery, and 300 ft. on each side of same, as follows:

Beginning at this discovery point and monument, and running easterly 500 ft. along lode or centre line to the east centre end-line stake-Corner No. 1-, thence southerly 300 ft. to the southeast corner stake-Corner No. 2-, thence 1500 ft. westerly to the southwest corner stakeCorner No. 3—, thence 300 ft. northerly to the west centre end-line stake-Corner No. 4—, which is 1000 ft. westerly along the lode or centre line from discovery, thence 300 ft. northerly to the northwest corner stake-Corner No.

5, thence 1500 ft. easterly to the northeast corner stake
-Corner No. 6, thence 300 ft. southerly to the east
centre end-line stake-Corner No. 1; all corners being
wood posts set in stone monuments, and inscribed with
name of this claim and their number and position.

This claim lies about one-half mile south of the Horace
Greeley claim, survey No. 4876, and on the north side of
Red Mountain near its foot, in the Calico Peak Mining
District, San Bernardino County, California. It joins on
the west end-line of the May Day claim, and on the north
side-line of the Greenwater.

JOHN D. STRANGE, Locator.

The location notice may be written on a post or blazed tree. It may be written on a board or paper and tacked to a post or tree. The notice has even been folded and placed, with a corner projecting, between two flat stones at the top of a stone monument. The better way is to put the notice in a box, or in a bottle or tin can turned upside down to prevent entrance of rain, and set in a conspicuous place in the rock monument. If a post is used, the can should be nailed to the post in an upside-down position. If the location notice is once properly posted and proof of that fact can be made, the locator cannot be made to suffer on account of the disappearance of the notice. Hence the advisability of having a witness to the location and his signature attached to the certificate filed for record.

CHAPTER VIII

Lode Location-Laying Out and Staking

Before 1866 the length and width of lode claims was not uniform. The Act of Congress of 1866 limited the location of a single locator to 200 ft. in length along the lode, and to an unspecified width to be fixed by local rules, while a consolidated single claim of an association of persons was limited to 3000 ft. along the lode. This will explain the long, narrow shape

of the older patented claims.

The Act of 1872 regulates the present maximum size of claims as follows: "shall not exceed 1500 ft. in length along the vein or lode" and "no claim shall extend more than 300 ft. on each side of the middle of the vein at the surface" (R. S., sec. 2320). Most of the small and narrow claims located but not patented before the passage of this Act were subsequently amended to take in the maximum area. The statutes of Colorado, North Dakota, and South Dakota prescribe a smaller area than the Federal Statutes (see Appendix A). It was the intent of the law to give each location only 1500 ft. in length along the outcrop of the vein or lode and 300 ft. on each side, that a centre line parallel to the length of the claim and dividing it into two equal parts should correspond with the outcrop of the vein or lode, but as this is rarely if ever possible, the centre line or presumed 'middle of the vein at surface' is and will

be considered as a theoretical lode line. The size and shape of lode claims may be said to be contained in the following: (1) the lode or centre line may not be more than 1500 ft. in length; (2) side lines may not be more than 300 ft. distant at right angles from the lode line or its prolongation. Adherence to these two rules makes 20.66 acres the maximum area of a claim. The side lines need not be parallel, but it is preferable to have them so. End lines should be straight, parallel to

each other, and have substantial existence. Lode lines should not be arbitrarily irregular or zigzag.

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Fig. 4 is an ideally laid out claim, being a perfect rectangle with side lines 1500 ft. long and end lines 600 ft. in length, and appropriating 1500 ft. in length along the outcrop of the vein and 300 ft. on each side, as contemplated by the law.

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Fig. 5, 6, 7, and 8 represent valid locations, as they do not claim more than 1500 ft. along the lode line, nor over 300 ft. at right angles from the lode line or its prolongation; also, the

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