Show WHAT constitutes PATENT WORK written for the mining review by H NV macfarren the cla claimant mant shall file fie a certificate that five hundred dol lars worth of labor has been expended or improvements made upon the claim by himself or grantors granfors gran tors section 2325 U S revised statutes the above work one of the statutory requirements quire ments in patenting a mining claim is generally known as patent work usually it is work that was intermittently performed as the annual representation or assessment work required to hold a claim by possessory right or location from year to year in the matter of patenting a claim the government is not par ticul arly interested in whether the assessment work has been performed or not all it requires with respect to work is that worth has been done while it was contemplated in fact should be and is so stated by the textbook text book writers on mining law that assessment work and patent work should be the same there is considerable difference be tween between them in some cases what will constitute assessment work can be inferred from the decisions of the courts when such work has been questioned but what will be allowed as patent work must be judged from the decisions of the land department and the ideas prevailing in that department for with the passing of time there has been anin an increasing tendency to draw the restrictions tighter ad and tighter the land department the general land office being vested with the disposal of the public lands and the making of rules and regulations for such disposal is in a position to make arbitrary requirements with which the courts are loath to interfere except in cases of the grossest mis misinterpretation interprets of the statutes or of fraud patent work must directly tend to develop the mineral contents of the ground and facilitate its extraction work indirectly tending to do this will generally be rejected for patent purposes though usually acceptable as assessment work it should be work tending to open up the ground and leave some trace of itself such as cuts tunnels shafts and quarries in fact actual development operations about the only thing that will be allowed in the line of buildings are shaft houses and gallows frames blacksmith shops are now generally rejected and dwelling cabins still more so it is clear that roads and trails off the claims will not be allowed while recent decisions and the expressions pres of private opinion intimate that roads and trails will hereafter be rejected whether on or off the claims all expenditures for reduction works i whether excavations buildings or ma d chinery are rejected expenditures for watchman pumping water surveying where not a part of an improvement etc are not applicable whether diamond drill holes will be allowed is an untested question old and caved works may be applied if clear and convincing proof of their existence and cost can be made in substance only actual mining op operations br the cost of moving earth or rock in the search for attempt to reach or extraction of mineral comes within the spirit of what constitutes patent work W H MAC PARREN FARREN |