Show THE FOREST SERVICE AND THE prospector ddn tora BY LEROY A PALMER so much has been said and written about the relation of the forest service of the united states department of agriculture to the mining industry and so many misconceptions ha have ve been formed that a few facts on the subject should shoud be of interest to those engaged in mining in the first place let it be understood that the fact that land is included in a national forest is no bar to mining or prospecting thereon paragraph of the regulations under the V U S mining laws published by the general land office states 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 ru es and regulations applying thereto shall continue to be subject to such location and entry notwithstanding the reservation in this connection it is of interest to note that an investigation by the forest service showed that during 1912 there were 2560 prospectors within t tiie h e n national atonal I 1 forests of colorado as compared with 1475 on unreserved public lands immediately adjacent the relation of the forest service toward the possession of or acquisition of title to mining claims is confined to requiring that compliance shah be had with the mining laws of the united states and is never asserted unless and until application is made to patent except where improper in use is made of a claim which actively interferes with the administration of the forest the forest service has no authority to supplement the federal laws with regulations of its own making as can be done by states or mining districts such as to require that a discovery shaft be sunk on the claim or that the discovery of mineral shall be made in the discovery shaft as provided by the colorado statutes nor can it issue or refuse patent this being exclusively a function of the secretary of the interior when the owner of a mining claim desires a patent the procedure is as follows the surveyor general notifies the forest service ervice S when order for mineral survey is issued and if possible the ranger accompanies the surveyor and makes his examination coincident with the survey in order to obviate possibility of delay and make sure of the location of claim lines and extent of improvements if unable to be present presen t when the survey is made he makes his examination as soon as possible after mineral examiner U S forest ser vice denver colo application to patent is filed and in occasional instances this 1 report is ig bitted to the general land office before 1 expiration of the sixty day period of 91 li cation so that the exar examination oll byrhl by tub pub forest service does the not delay the 1 issuance of patent except in case the required pend iture has not been made mad 0 upon the tt ex e development work section 2320 of the revised statutes states that no location of a mining claim be made until the discovery of the vein or lode within the limits or of tale claim located but the ranger does not inquire into whether a discovery ha hac deen made III if the claim is in a recognized mineral locality if the requisite expenditure of has been made and if the indications are that it is being held in good faith and not as a subterfuge to acquire ground for f 0 r other than mining purposes he be will make mak e a favorable report in most cases compliance with the second condition carries the third with it and in this connection it might be well to quote from the national forest manual it is not the purpose or the intent of the department to initiate contests against claimants who have entered lands in the national forests in good faith to secure a home or for other purposes recognized by law and in such cases no contest should be initiated on slight technical noncom non compliance with the law an opinion quite general seems to prevail that contests against supposedly invalid claims caime are initiated on the report of the ranger who it is true sometimes has little or no knowledge of mining this is incorrect on receipt of a report from a ranger range r showing the noncompliance compliance non with the above conditions the mineral examiner is detailed to the case the mineral examiner is a man who must have had actual mining experience he qualifies for his bis position by submitting to the civil service commission a detailed account or of his experience peri ence with references to five previous employers and signed statements by two tw persons personally able to testify as to his fitness for the position which application if satisfactory admits him to a competitive examination which consists chiefly of fl eions on geology and mineralogy the mineral examiner makes in ex el flaus balls tive investigation of the claim measuring measure mea surin and estimating the work and also consider ing the question of character and extent extent of discovery and if it develops that no dil covery has been made as well as the c M being deficient in other respects res pacts the facts are reported to the general land office if if the commissioner considers the facts focient to justify cancellation of the ap for patent the clam claimant nant is informed of the charges against the claim clabin and given an opportunity to present nis his evidence at a hearing at the hearing both sides are represented by counsel and introduce witnesses as in a suit before a court of law the evidence is submitted to the register and receiver of the land office of the district in which the claim is situated and they render a decision for or against issuance of patent subject to approval by the commissioner of the general land office appeal may be taken to the secretary of the interior forest service free use policy A prospector engaged in working his c aim is entitled to such timber found thereon as may be necessary for its development which includes timber for buildings 6 fuel etc as well as the actual support of excavations and need make no application if there is no timber on the claim he sends word to the ranger who calls on him and issues a free use permit for any amount necessary up to twenty dollars stumpage value in case of an emergency er gency he can take such timber as he may need immediately and notify the ranger at his first opportunity probably a fair average of the prices computed for free uses in the second district which includes colorado wyoming south dakota minnesota and michigan would be 2 per thousand feet board measure for green per thousand lineal feet for lagging and twenty five cents per cord for firewood if a prospector were living on his claim and working vor corking king it the year round twenty cords of firewood five dollars worth should shoud be ample for his needs this would leave him fifteen dollars worth of timber for his workings A post eight inches in diameter and eight feet long is scaled as ten board feet such a timber cut to say six and one half feet in len lenth length th has a safe working load western yel ow pine of 46 tons for well seasoned timber and half that amount for green timber A post ten inches in diameter and twelve feet long sufficient for two caps and some over scales as thirty feet so that two drift sets would scale seventy board feet fourteen cents worth of timber a cost of one and three fourths cents per foot of tunnel if the sets are placed on four foot centers to lag a five by seven foot drift on top and sides with six inch spit lagging would require nineteen feet of lagging per foot of drift or 2 38 3 8 cents per foot so that the total cost at which the timber for a five by seven foot drift would be figured would be 4 18 1 8 cents per foot so that the fifteen dollars mentioned after allowing for firewood would furnish timber for feet of drift and leave plenty of scraps for blocking fuel and other uses to which they boud be put all of which under free use permit he obtains for nothing of course a shaft would require more timber per foot but less work is accomplished in the same time very few prospectors require that amount of timber in a year but a prospector may cut as much timber as he wishes from his claims without permit if the use to which it is put tends to develop the claim from which it is cut and in cases of unusual need the forest supervisor may extend the free use permit to an amount not exceeding one hundred dollars much aluch more detail could be entered into along these lines but I 1 trust that the above facts may correct some of the prevail prevailing ng misconceptions of the atti attitude tudd of the forest service toward the mining industry and show that it is the desire of the service to promote and not retard the development of our mineral lands |