Calling all History Buffs! I Need General History on Staking Claims

[afreakofnature]

I would like to know the history of staking mining claims. I have done some quick internet research but have not come up with much except for the 1872 mining act. What I would like to know is this:

Hard Rock: When did hard rock mining claims go from 10 acres to 20 acres? and was there any variation in between there too? Wikipedia says this happened after the 1872 mining act, but I have reason to believe that 10 acre lode claims were still being done after that. Reason being is that some of the early patented mineral surveys in the Black Hills, SD are 10 acres but later ones are 20 and I have no year to go off of. Gold was discovered in the Hills in 1874ish but the boom hit in 1876, it does not make sense to me why 10 acre claims would still be going up after the act was already passed for 20 acre claims.

Placer: What was the max acres that one individual could stake in the beginning of our gold rushes and how did this change over time? Example, was it always 20 acres per individual, did it start as 10 and go up and then down? Could you have a 160 acre claim with 8 people? Reason for this, is in the same area, I am finding patented placer surveys that are smaller than 10 acres and some up to 120 acres. Also did people cheat the law and patented placer claims in leu of a HES (homestead entry survey)? was it cheaper/easier to do it that way? was this common?

I really would love a thorough history on this if there is one. If anyone can lead me to this information (books, internet sites, anything) I would greatly appreciate it. I love history and would also like to know so I can see where people started specifically based on MS's only.

Thank you!

 

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[Goldwasher]

Claim size was typically decided in the district of the diggins sometimes by the nature of each dig mostly based on richness. Some claims on the Nome, AK. beaches were only six foot square. Miners on the location would get together and decide the claim size as a group.It must be once the Government got involved that they went to standardized sizes... I'm not sure about patents. Nowadays a hard rock claim is not 10 acres you can only claim the vein/ ore body that you say you want to dig. with a max. I think of 300 ft. by 1000 ft. and also must describe the dip and direction. Clay Diggins will hopefully chime in and give you the correct answer.

 

[B H Prospector]

From what I have learned from reading various books, and I'm sorry I don't remember which ones, they all came from the library, in each mining district the miners whould hold a meeting and determine the size of claims. Most common was 300 ft by 1000 ft crossing both sides of the creek from ridge to ridge. On the beaches of Nome each claim was about 20 ft wide from waters edge to the tundra edge. If I recall right and I could be wrong it's been a long time since I read these, but the 1872 law kind of conformed the claim sizes, but it was still the miners who set the size in each district. Hope you find some definitive answers.

BH Prospector