Any person who is a citizen of the United States, or who has declared
his intention to become a citizen, and no others, may locate and hold
a mining claim 1,500 linear feet along the course of any mineral
vein or lode subject to location; or any association of persons,
severally qualified as above, may make joint location of such claim of
1,500 feet; but in no event can a location of a vein or lode, made
subsequent to the date mentioned, exceed 1,500 feet along the course
thereof, whatever may be the number of persons in the company.
With regard to the extent of surface ground adjoining a lode or vein,
and claimed for the convenient working of the same, it is provided that
the lateral extent of location, made after May 10th, 1872, shall, in
no case, exceed 300 feet on each side of the middle of the vein at the
surface, and that no such surface rights shall be limited by any mining
regulations to less than 25 feet on each side of the middle of the vein
at the surface, except where adverse rights, existing on the 10th of
May, 1872, may render such limitations necessary; the end lines of such
claims to be in all cases parallel with each other.
By the foregoing it will be seen that no lode-claim, located after May
10th, 1872, can exceed a parallelogram 1,500 feet in length by 600 in
width, but whether surface ground of that width can be taken depends
upon the local regulations, or State or Territorial laws then in force
in the mining districts; but no such local regulations, or State or
Territorial laws, shall limit a vein or lode-claim to less than 1,500
feet along its course, nor can surface rights be limited to less than
50 feet in width, unless adverse claims, existing on May 10th, 1872,
render such lateral limitations necessary. It is provided by the
Revised Statutes that the miners of each district may make rules and
regulations not in conflict with the laws of the United States, or of
the State or Territory in which the districts are situated, governing
the location, manner of recording, and amount of work necessary to hold
possession of a claim.
In order to hold a possessory right to a location made prior to May
10th, 1872, not less than $100 worth of labor must be performed or
improvements made thereon, within one year from the date of such
location, and annually thereafter; in default of which the claim
will be subject to re-location by any one else having the necessary
qualifications, unless the original locator, his heirs, assigns, or
legal representatives, have resumed work after such failure and before
the re-location. The expenditures required upon mining claims may be
made from the surface, or in running a tunnel for the development of
such claims. The Act of February 11th, 1875, provided that where a
person or company has run a tunnel for the purpose of developing a lode
or lodes, the money so expended shall be considered as expended on the
said lode, and the owner or owners shall not be required to perform
work on the surface to hold the claim.
Individual proof of citizenship may be made by affidavit. If a company,
unincorporated, by the agent’s affidavit; if a corporation, by the
filing of a copy of charter or certificate of incorporation. Locators
against whom no adverse rights rested on the date of the Act of 1872,
shall have, on compliance with general law and recognized custom, the
exclusive right to