Show perfecting title to oil 01 1 shale lands BY J B JENSON IN SHALE REVIEW we have now reached a stage in the shale industry wherein heavy investments are being made in shale lands preparatory to the perfecting of titles and the later installation of commercial shale oil plants it is important that at least a general idea as to legal requirements pertaining to shale land locations be had by the prospective shale oil man and brief references to some of these are given below during the past eighteen months the writer has had occasion to report on an aggregate of approximately acres of shale lands located in the principal western fields including uinta basin green river basin debeque grand valley and soldier summit districts included in these tracts is some of the finest shale land in existence and one cannot seriously inspect these great deposits without feeling that the beginning of the oil shale industry not only is comparatively near at hand but must become one of the greatest manufacturing industries of the world in this utah and colorado promise to rank among the foremost of producers it is regrettable however that many locations have been made and are offered for sale that are not in compliance with the law at this particular time shale land owners and prospective investors are equally interested in the question of titles the former be cause he must now provide funds for assessment work and does not want to spend money uselessly and the latter because he be desires to obtain land only on which he has assurance he can obtain patent hits posters imposters Im and tricksters Trick in addition to the land owners and investors there is another element that is not so much interested in whether they can obtain patents to their lands as to whether they can obtain the other mans cash he may be the fellow who is giving quitclaim quit claim deeds to land which is properly held by a previous locator but on which he has placed a subsequent worthless notice of location or the fellow who holds quitclaim quit claim deeds from his colo co lo 10 cahors for a consideration of notwithstanding the fact that if these co locators are put under oath they cannot be shown to have contributed a single penny towards the expense of locating and developing the ground or otherwise to be equally interested parties or he may be the horseback locator who has covered thousands of acres with notices containing dummies possibly in the dead of winter when it was impossible to make discovery I 1 have in mind one examination where I 1 found the shale location on a government reservoir withdrawal and when the seller was confronted with the facts he produced a letter purporting to have come from his attorney who claims that the government has abandoned the reservoir project and will restore the land to public domain thereby making his claims good I 1 understand he has since offered this land to other buyers who are going to considerable sid erable expense on examination notwithstanding the fact that he had no valid location on the of february 1920 when the leasing bill went into effect and therefore can under no circumstances give even color of title things to consider in title searching in another case two parties entered into a contract whereby one should furnish the funds the other make locations and subsequently sell the claims As they were sold a certain amount was to go to the party furnishing funds and a certain amount to the party doing the word work no mention was made of the other locators or what part they should have in the transaction it is evident that a location of this character cannot be considered as valid and that the purchaser of such a group of claims will be denied patent when he applies for same regardless of how much money he may have spent upon the property in a number of instances I 1 have found two sets of locators on the same land one making his locations in accordance with an early government survey the other by a government corner in the other direction so that while two locations are made on the same property the description on each is different and when examination of abstract is made the attorney making such examination has no way of knowing that such conflict exists inasmuch as established corners control the best legal talent advises that the prior locator will hold the property regardless of the fact that his description might cover land located somewhere else the purchaser from the second locator therefore stands to lose the purchase price and it is the duty of the examining engineer to cover this matter in his report for the protection of his client notices of mining locations are recorded with the county recorder in the county wherein is located the land upon which the locations are made and the united states land department is not advised as to such locations until patent is applied for so that between the time a mining location is made and the time that patent may be applied for it is possible that the land covered by the mining locations may be acquired from the united states by a homesteader desert land scrip location or otherwise and therefore it is important that the status of the united states land off office ice records relating to the land in question be known in view of the above conditions the investor vestor must be extremely careful and re quire from his engineer and his attorney the most careful examination of property and scrutiny of records before making payment on the property which he has selected questions affecting locations assuming the land covered by the mining locations to be open vacant public domain subject to location by citizens of the united states the following questions then arise 1 were each of the eight persons named upon the location notices of each claim bona fide locators at or prior to the time of the locations did each person named upon the notices of location consent that his or her name be placed upon the notices and did each person named as a locator in good faith actually claim a one eighth interest in each of the locations it is the policy of th government in disposing of its mineral lands to make a general distribution among as large a number as possible of those who wish to acquire such land for their own use and it is contrary to this policy and to the provisions of rev st sees 2330 2331 to permit one person to cover more than 20 acres of placer ground by one location by the device of using the 4 names of his employees or friends as locators durant v corbin 94 fed rep the following is the syllabus taken from vol federal reporter page nome co v snyder circuit court of appeals ninth circuit may alay 22 1911 1 under rev st sec 2330 U S comp st 1901 p 1432 providing that no location for a placer mining claim made after july 9 1890 shall exceed acres for any one person or association of persons and section 2331 page 1432 providing that no such location shall include more than 20 acres for each individual claimant the unit of individual allowance is 20 acres and where acres is embraced within one location by an association it must consist of at least eight persons 2 under rev st sees 2330 2331 U S comp st 1901 p 1432 Ilmi limiting ting placer claims to 20 acres for each individual and authorizing a location of acres by an association any scheme or device whereby one individual is to acquire more than that amount or proportion in area constitutes a fraud on the law and consequently a fraud on the government rendering the entire location invalid so that where a partnership consisting of five persons attempted to locate a single claim covering acres and formed a joint stock association by which two of the members acquired only a nom nominal inal interest one less than a fifth one more than a fifth and one more than half the location was void federal reporter p 2 9 was there an actual exposure either natural or artificial of the mineral on account of which the claim was located upon particular location sufficient to constitute a discovery it is not sufficient that discovery be now undertaken or that it be made in this years assessment work as has been suggested by some locators the leasing bill specifically states that one must have a valid location at the time of its passage on february 25 of this year A location of a mining claim is not valid until there is a discovery in case of a lode claim of a vein or lode containing mineral or in case of a placer claim a discovery of petroleum or other mineral within its limits united states v ohio oil co et al fed rep A discovery of mineral for the purpose of the location of a mining claim must be within the limits of the claim sought to be located den v omaha wyoming oil co pac rep actual discovery essential to constitute cons titue a prior discovery which will support a location of public ground as an oil placer claim under the mining laws the locator must have actually discovered oil within the limits of the claim mere surface indications of the existence of oil therein however strong are not sufficient nor is the existence of oil upon adjoining lands nevada sierra oil co v home oil co et al 98 fed rep on april 19 1920 in the case of cameron et al v united states 40 sup ct rep is was held under rev st see sec 2320 comp st sec providing that no location of a mining claim shall be made until discovery of the vein or lode within the limits of the claim located the discovery should be such as would justify a person of ordinary prudence in the further expenditure of his time and means in an eff effort ort to develop a paying mine under rev st sec comp st sec giving the secretary of the interior supervision per vision of the public lands including mines section section providing that the commissioner of the general land office shall perform under the direction of such secretary all executive duties concerning public lands and sections 2478 section giving the commissioner under the direction of the secretary authority to enforce and carry into execution the provisions of that title the secretary after proper notice and upon adequate hearing may determine whether a mining claim is valid and it if it be found invalid declare it null and void and the fact that the department has no means of executing its decision such as dis possessing the locator is immaterial the findings of the secretary of the interior that the tract covered by a mineral location was not mineral land and that there had been no sufficient discovery are conclusive in the absence of fraud or imposition 3 were the surface boundaries of the claim properly marked with substantial posts and sunk into the ground to wit one at each angle of the claim I 1 have encountered claimants who think it sufficient that this land be located on surveyed ground and maintain that it is not necessary to place these monuments I 1 have seen numerous claims where no boundary posts can be found and others where only a loose stick of wood an inch or two in diameter has been set upright in a brush without marking on it whatsoever if it has been the intent of the various locators to faithfully comply with the mining law in detail there should then be no difficulty in establishing their rights to their property for in accordance with the act of february 11 1897 a citizen of the united states may enter lands containing petroleum or other mineral oils and chiefly valuable under the provisions of the laws relative to placer mineral claims in the act of february 25 1920 known as the oil leasing bill it is provided see sec 37 that the do deposits posits of shale herein referred to in lands valuable for such minerals shall be subjected to disposition only in the form and manner provided in this act except as to valid claims existent at date of passage of this act and thereafter maintained in compliance with the laws under which initiated which claims may be perfected under such laws on may 16 1920 referring to an application for patent for all shale placer mining claims the first assistant secretary of the department of the interior in a letter addressed to the commissioner of the general land office said oil shale having been thus recognized by the department and by congress as a mineral deposit and a source of petroleum and having been demonstrated elsewhere to be a material of economic importance lands valuable on account thereof must be held to have been subject to valid location and appropriation under the mining laws to the same extent and subject to the same provisions and conditions as if valuable on account of oil or gas entries and applications for patents for oil shale placer claims will therefore be adjudicated by your office in accordance with the same legal provisions and with reference to the same requirements and limitations as are applicable to oil and gas placer no time should be lost in doing assessment work for many years it has been considered sufficient to be on the ground and doing assessment work at the end of the year in which assessment was due and it has not been an uncommon occurrence to see this work extend into the following year doing the work for two years at one time which can hardly be considered the intent of the law the owner of shale claims who wants to be absolutely safe should have his work completed and on record on the last day of december claims which are now lost can not be relocated located re A great deal of assess ment work that was considered sufficient in the past will not answer for the pre present sento the future all assessment work pertaining to shale locations will very likely be inspected by I 1 government engineers and claims on work has been done in soft places or which do not show an actual value of wil luo revert to the government on a recent examination trip I 1 saw a man with team and scraper plowing dit ditches chesin in soft soil claiming it as assessment work on a group of five claims it is possible to do work on oil claims in groups of five but there seems to be nothing in the law to tat warrant this on oil shale locations and the only proper and safe method is to do the wort for each individual claim upon that claim this work must all be of a permanent nature in the development of the ledge edge such as tunneling sinking of shafts or may consist of excavation for mill site a piece of road work provided either of these come upon the particular claim that it is desired to do assessment work on but only of this work can apply to that claim roads or trails done on other ground to reach a certain claim do not apply as assessment on that claim but only so much thereof as is actually performed on it Buil buildings dinIn retorting plants pipe lines etc or any anything thin that can be removed cannot be applied as assessment all assessment work should be done in a such a way that it may be applied on patent and every owner of shale land should mee imin apply for patent on at least part of 0 his holdings it is advisable to do at least and an 25 per cent more work for assessment patent than is actually required not ia the present mineral laws were and to bl tended to cover originally come suitable in every respect for shale loca cha g material eions there will have to be the pres P for but will follow these no doubt all in hand to ent it stands us gith and even eve interests from every angle that at this done I 1 am firmly of the opinion shale 1 least 50 per cent of present ahr OU 11 will revert to the government unless mentioned nedan and of the causes above beao all signs fail some of this will have purchased by innocent parties not after sted long ago I 1 land tion on a very choice piece of s tie the what s the question as aej usual is clear title 1 title in the reply v was aas the call de nd a I 1 have deeds from all locators find ver this is a serl merlou S rave liver at once th 11 wa it is viewed v occurrence common pro and ana a department tynett API suspicion by the depar tive purchaser is not warrantee warranted ct of lod j a tra |