Show THE LAW OF LOCATION mining and scientific press it is a natural supposition that after the many years of experience in mining in the west v c s t in miners iners generally would be perfectly familiar with the law relating to mines and yet some are surprisingly ignorant of those features which have the most important bearing on the subject of location the initial point in securing mining prop property efty on the public di omain domain the laws relating to aliens to the extra lateral rights and to some other legal phrases of bf mining are not so readily understood the most astute attorneys being themselves often at a loss how to proceed with safety to their clients but the statutes defining the la cation of claims is simple and easily understood T to 0 such an ex this a fact that the lodica inference is that in some cases the miner purposely fails to understand or frames a law of his own which suits his ends better ile than the plain language of the statutes the law regulating the location of mini mining nil claims and securing title to them by the performance of certain acts are plain and easily understood and for this reason the conflicts constantly arising over the ownership of mining borund should not occur at all the fault often lies with the locator himself who carelessly fails to comply with the requirements quire ments of the statutes and sets up an insufficient number of corner monuments or posts sometimes none at all or putting them at the proper places they are so frail as to be readily destroyed or so inconspicuous as to remain unobserved by others seeking mining ground often too much dependence pen dence is placed on the discovery stake upon which is posted the claims of the locator who states thereon the name of the location under the law this is insufficient and will not meet the requirements of the law stakes must also be set out at the corners and at the end centers of the claim these stakes or monuments must be plainly visible from one to the other and if when standing at any of the stakes the next adjacent 0 stake cannot be seen because of intervening ter brush rocks or rising ground then additional intermediate stakes must be set so that in the language of the statutes the blunda bounda boundaries ries of the location maybe may be plainly traced discovery Is the inception of the miners right this should first be made and the location laid out to conform to existing conditions as to strike of the vein etc as nearly as may be ascertained often it is difficult or impossible to determine without considerable work the direction of the strike of a vein or deposit of ore and then the miner must stake the claim to the best of his ability and judgment A claim may be laid out prior to discovery but it must be remembered that in such event the legal date of location begins at the time discovery is a actually made and not from previous date of location without previous discovery is difficult to hold against trespassers the mining law should be amended in this respect that the bona fide locator may have sufficient time based upon continued work within which he may hold his claim against others while searching for the vein or deposit of mineral believed to lie beneath the surface occurrences of this character art am numerous in regions of bedded deposits deep placers and flat veins vein but no law exists on the statute b books which makes provision for discovery under such conditions the most confusing feature of mining legis legislation lafton is the lack of uniformity of state laws the several states have the power to enact laws regulating the location and development of mineral lands providing such enactments do not conflict with the united states aws laws and most of the states have taken advantage of this to pass laws calculated to promote the development of their mineral resources by requiring a stated amount of actual development within a limited time sixty to ninety days generally this requirement being made a part of the act of location laws of this character have been proven to be beneficial to the legitimate and more speedy development of the mineral land of these states as it does not permit the location of mineral borund without the performance of any work for nearly two years which is possible under the federal laws the only unfortunate phase of the state laws is the lack a ek of uniformity that which is legal and proper in colorado may not be sufficient in arizona or in idaho in view of this fact then the miners in the several states should familiarize themselves with the federal laws relative to making mining locations and also with the laws of the state and district in which they live and then having a knowledge of o f these laws seek to comply with them in the fullest degree and there would be far less mining litigation than there now is |