Prospectors Research Tools

[Clay Diggins]

Prospector's Research Tools

I haven't been around much this summer and with the desert prospecting season just starting it's a good time to show off what I did this long hot summer. I have been working with a few friends on a new non-profit organization to give you a single place for all your land research.

The result is MyLandMatters.Org. This is the gateway to your land information repository. Maps, books, tutorials, community resources and quality, easy-to-access information about the land around you.

No ads, No memberships, No log-in required.

This past spring while sitting around with some friends we came to the conclusion that most of the important and useful things that we want to know about the land around us was difficult to locate and tough to understand. Despite the many sources of information there was no single place to find the information available.

We decided we could do something about that. We agreed to put our time and energy into creating a single place that anyone could find the answers to questions about the land.

It's a big project. It has taken a lot of work, learning and resources to get things started. But after six months of long days, and more than a few nights, the Land Matters repository is ready for you to use.

Land Matters is all about the land. You can find Land Status Maps, Active Mining Claims Maps (with live direct links into the current LR2000 claims database), A great collection of mining books, Land Laws, Geology books and maps, Forest Travel Plans and a whole lot more.

Land Matters is for land users. Our collections are guided by community input. That's you. Let us know what kind of material you would like to find in our Library or a particular map you would like to see. Help us build Land Matters to best serve the community.

We've already got a lot of things that prospectors have been asking for - the claims maps alone were almost universally requested. Land Matters isn't just for prospectors and miners. But you can help prioritize our efforts and drive the content of Land Matters. Prospectors now have a unique opportunity to help guide and build an information resource designed by prospectors and for prospectors.

We are just getting started filling the Library but there will be hundreds of books, maps and items added in the next few weeks. We've even got a Newsletter so you can get regular updates about new additions to the Land Matters repository.

Check it out and let me know what you think. Here are a few good places to start:

Tutorials - the current focus is on understanding Land Status.
Maps - We all like maps and we've got some you will love.
Library - search for something.

Heavy Pans
Barry & Leigh

 

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[SLNugget]

Hey Barry how can I accurately find the number of acres in a section as some are not 640 acres? And the acres of a patented claim shown on a MTP? Thanks

 

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[KevinInColorado]

We stand on the shoulders of giants everyday...contribution on the way Barry...

 

[Clay Diggins]

Hey Barry how can I accurately find the number of acres in a section as some are not 640 acres? And the acres of a patented claim shown on a MTP? Thanks

The MTPs do generaly include the acreage of Patents as well as any reservations held by the United States on the issuance of the Patent Grant. Not all MTPs are created equal. To work your way through the mumbo jumbo of the Master Title Plat notations you might look to the Land Matters Tutorials and Videos.

Look at the new "Special Surveys" addition to the PLSS layers on the Land Matters maps. Running queries on that map layer will give you the acreage and a lot more information about the survey. I put that together for you today.

You should first understand that those "Special Surveys" are not necessarily patented claims. Special surveys are often mineral surveys and they sometimes result in patents for minerals but they are not limited to surveys for mining.

In the briefest terms a Special Survey is any official survey that describes the public lands in terms other than aliquot (regular) parts. A Special Survey is always irregular in it's shape and/or orientation. If a survey is done that simply describes a section, quarter section or a few surveyed quarter quarters (as most homestead and placer surveys do) it will not appear on the Special Surveys PLSS because they don't change the legal description of the public lands - they aren't considered "special" they are classed as "regular" surveys.

You need to use the Special Surveys in conjunction with the Land Management and other Land Status layers to determine whether they are patented private land or remain public lands. Not all surveys survive to the patent stage but all special surveys will be included in the PLSS once they are accepted by the Surveyor General.

As for the acreage of any particular Section - that's not something that is generally a part of the survey data. The Special (irregular) and aliquot (regular) portions of a Section are defined in acres but the Section acreage itself could potentially change over time due to those Special Surveys being accepted. Special Surveys that are taken to patent are external to the Section because they cease to be included in the survey. A section's total acreage can actually shrink due to a Special Survey going to Patent. You will find the reason for that exclusion in Section 8 of the 1872 Mining Act.

We will eventually host the aliquot parts of the sections on the Land Matters servers. We have those databases ready to upload and display but, as you can imagine, that file covers 30 States and is HUGE - a bigger server will be needed to present that important part of the PLSS. Once the bigger server is available Land Matters will be able to give the acreage of any particular portion of the survey by the usual query methods. At that point we will be able to link the user directly to important land documents like Patent Grants and subsurface ownership.

Try out the new Special Survey map layers Stan. I think they may help you with your research.

Heavy Pans

 

[SLNugget]

Thanks Barry. Appreciate your assistance as always. I will give it a try. As you probably surmised, I am trying to locate any open ground in a couple of odd sized sections with several patents in each section. Wish me luck.

 

[Clay Diggins]

Mid August Mining Claims Update

As they do twice each month Land Matters has updated the BLM LR2000 Mining Claims Maps.

This is the next to last update before the end of the Federal Mining Claims year. We are working on some graphs and charts to illustrate the number and type of claims made and lost through the year. There is a pattern that changes by state and season that a wise prospector can use to optimize their research efforts.

In the meantime enjoy the most up to date mining claims maps available at any price.

Heavy Pans

 

[Clay Diggins]

New Land Status Maps!

It's an incredibly busy season for my business but we've had requests from several Land Matters user to give them more land status tools.

In particular the Master Title Plats and Supplements for Oregon and Washington States have been requested so I took some time off the paying work to help Land Matters make these maps available. You can now download MTPs and Supplements directly from those maps.

Land Matters has several other Land Status Map updates coming. Look for more stuff soon!

Heavy Pans

 

[SLNugget]

Thank you sir, I appreciate you doing that. But I hate you quit the paying work to do it. I was over there today in Liberty and although walking is a problem I got to see some stuff and talk with some people with a patented mine that has been in the family a long time. Fun stuff and your addition will greatly assist me. Thanks again.

 

[Clay Diggins]

You are welcome Stan. Glad to hear you are getting out there. Keep up the walking, it will come in handy. I'll want to hear all about the mine when you come down this way again.

Heavy Pans

 

[cpomike13]

It's an incredibly busy season for my business but we've had requests from several Land Matters user to give them more land status tools.

In particular the Master Title Plats and Supplements for Oregon and Washington States have been requested so I took some time off the paying work to help Land Matters make these maps available. You can now download MTPs and Supplements directly from those maps. [emoji106]

Land Matters has several other Land Status Map updates coming. Look for more stuff soon!

Heavy Pans

Are there tutorials that I can follow, because I tried to get info from your land matter site on both my large android phone and pc, and I had trouble accessing claim information. As an amuture geologist and rookie gold miner, I could really could use the resource. Thanks for putting it together and any help

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[cpomike13]

Are there tutorials that I can follow, because I tried to get info from your land matter site on both my large android phone and pc, and I had trouble accessing claim information. As an amuture geologist and rookie gold miner, I could really could use the resource. Thanks for putting it together and any help

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

Yes, I am an idiot. Right there on the first page "tutorials " nvm

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[Clay Diggins]

Are there tutorials that I can follow, because I tried to get info from your land matter site on both my large android phone and pc, and I had trouble accessing claim information. As an amuture geologist and rookie gold miner, I could really could use the resource. Thanks for putting it together and any help

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

You are welcome cpomike13. I think I can help on using the maps too.

First thing to do is get familiar with the map tools. That will get you about 99% of the way on anything you would want to do. You can get all the info on the tools by clicking on the "HELP" button on the top right of your mapping window. Just follow the links in there and you will quickly become a Land Matters Mapping Expert.

Check out the Tutorials section for more in depth instructions on the specifics of Land Status and "how it's done".

Another resource that hasn't made it to the Land Matters site yet is the Land Matters YouTube channel. There are a couple of videos there that deal specifically with advanced claims research.

Heavy Pans

 

[cpomike13]

Thanks a bunch for doing this. And for responding to me. Before I ask anymore questions, I'm going to read the thread all way through.

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[Clay Diggins]

Nevada and Wyoming Land Status Maps added

Land Matters Nevada and Wyoming Land Status Maps are now available!

Land Management as well as Wilderness areas and the all important Master Title Plats and their Supplements are available on these maps.

More important than checking for claims these Master Title Plats are my first stop when I begin research in a new area. The land status of all the federal managed lands are on these plat maps and they can give you a good idea of what sort of restrictions there might be on the public lands in your area of interest. They also show patents, mineral surveys and special surveys.

The notation on the Master Title Plats can be a bit tough to decipher so make a stop by the Land Matters Tutorials pages and download the Guide to Reading MTPs pdf to get a good start on learning this important prospecting research skill.

Heavy Pans

 

[bobw53]

The notation on the Master Title Plats can be a bit tough to decipher so make a stop by the Land Matters Tutorials pages and download the Guide to Reading MTPs pdf to get a good start on learning this important prospecting research skill.

Heavy Pans

I had heard that MTPs weren't the easiest thing to read... Whatever, I know how to read map, how hard can it be. I had to download the
cheat sheet because I couldn't figure it out....

Had a lot of fun pulling up all the old documents for what I guess was a land grant(homesteads)... They were on the BLM site... A neat bit of history, and signed
by presidents (or their secretary's) long since passed.

 

[goldenIrishman]

Houston we have a problem! (I think)

I was researching some areas near me and ran into something a bit strange. I had zoomed into an Arizona area(19N21W), turned on the information tool and clicked on a section (14) and was looking to see if there was any open areas there. The information window says 4 claims of 160 acres each, but when I go to the LR2000 the claims are listed as being only 20 acres each. Now these are what I call "company claims" in that they are owned by a corporation. They've claimed up large areas in adjoining sections. In nearby sections I've found a ton of "company claims" owned by a different company that are all adjoining but only 20 acres each. (I suspect a single person that has incorporated his company)

Needless to say I'm confused on several levels when it comes to "company claims". I hope you can shed some light on this for me as well as others. I don't think this question has come up yet in the thread.

1. How are corporate claims handled as far as size of the claim they are allowed to file?

2. Is there any benefit to incorporating while at a small scale or is it better to wait?

We've finished moving into the new place and the office is setup and I'm back in research mode till it cools off a bit more. I'll be heading over to the County Recorders office to do some research later this week on some claims in Gold Basin and will see about checking the 19W21N sec 14 claims while I'm there.

 

[Clay Diggins]

Houston we have a problem! (I think)

I was researching some areas near me and ran into something a bit strange. I had zoomed into an Arizona area(19N21W), turned on the information tool and clicked on a section (14) and was looking to see if there was any open areas there. The information window says 4 claims of 160 acres each, but when I go to the LR2000 the claims are listed as being only 20 acres each. Now these are what I call "company claims" in that they are owned by a corporation. They've claimed up large areas in adjoining sections. In nearby sections I've found a ton of "company claims" owned by a different company that are all adjoining but only 20 acres each. (I suspect a single person that has incorporated his company)

Needless to say I'm confused on several levels when it comes to "company claims". I hope you can shed some light on this for me as well as others. I don't think this question has come up yet in the thread.

1. How are corporate claims handled as far as size of the claim they are allowed to file?

2. Is there any benefit to incorporating while at a small scale or is it better to wait?

We've finished moving into the new place and the office is setup and I'm back in research mode till it cools off a bit more. I'll be heading over to the County Recorders office to do some research later this week on some claims in Gold Basin and will see about checking the 19W21N sec 14 claims while I'm there.

Those claims in 19W 21N 14 were amended and reduced in acreage on the 19th of this month Jeff. At our mid month claims update they were still listed as 160 acres. They will show as the amended 20 acre claims after our claims update for the first of the month (in process now).

You only get the first page of claim information when you go to the LR2000 on a search. To get the full claims history you will need to download the full report from the menu at the top of the BLM results page. I prefer to click on the PDF symbol (for a PDF of the whole file) but you can choose csv or a db format if that works better for you. When you download the full report for those claims you will see, on the second page, where they have been amended on the 19th of August, 2015 down to 20 acres.

Corporations are treated the same as individuals when it comes to mining claims. 20 acres per claim per corporation and up to 10 claims for the small miner's waiver.

Whether your mining is better conducted as an individual or as a corporation has more to do with your personal financial situation than it does with mining. There can be some advantages to either status depending on the circumstances.

Heavy Pans

 

[goldenIrishman]

Wow!!! I knew that the BLM was a "little behind" on record keeping but looking at the full report I can see just how bad it is! Also saw that some of the other claims from that corporation showed the same info but had yet to be adjusted. Makes it easy to see how over claiming happens so often.


So would I be correct in thinking that the adjusted claim descriptions would have to be filed at the County Recorders office? There are some areas I want to test, but of course I don't want to step on any fellow miners toes.

 

[SLNugget]

I hope everyone can appreciate the special resource this forum enjoys by having "Clay Diggins" available to comment here and answer our questions. Not to mention the great website MyLandMatters.org he and "Ruby" work so hard to bring us. And, yes, I am a fanboy for sure. Some of you may not be aware of the FootPrints mapping software Clay and Ruby also produce. There is no better claims mapping and info for the areas covered by FootPrints.

 

[delnorter]

Ditto, SLNugget.

The Land Matters information system for folks who use our lands is nothing short of amazing. Honestly, I don't know how they produce the information they do without significant charges to the users.

I plan on donating again soon.

Mike

 

[davin]

clay diggins, thanks very much for your nice site it is very helpful.
i noticed you are giving information on other states as well and was just wondering
if you plan on doing anything with idaho.
thanks.