identifying claims using geocommunicator.gov

[steveh2112]

i am not at all clear on how to identify if someone has a claim on some land. can someone help me please.

for example, i'm looking here GeoCommunicator at here Latitude/Longitude=39.802462; -121.252787

when i click on identify and look at PLSS (whatever that is) i see there is a 'Mining Claim Authorizations Cases' so i click on that and i get some claims
https://www.blm.gov/workspace/ihtml...00-a09e-0a780c38&DocVersion=1&isSmartcut=true

so there is one authorized claim in that area but i have no idea what to make of that data.

any ideas anyone?

thx steve

 

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[okbasspro]

Goto MyLandMatters better info it's a great site.

 

[steveh2112]

that's an interesting site but still haven't figured out how to ident the location. i'm watching this now


i guess PLSS is public land survey system
i guess you need this PLSS in Google Earth on google earth

generally, are any noticed posted on active claims?

 

[bobw53]

If your GPS coords are right, South 1/2 of the NE1/4 of the SE1/4, section 36, T23N R6E Mount Diablo Meridian(CA21).

Clear as mud isn't it?

The LR2000 shows 2 active 20 acre placers in the SE quarter.... Now exactly where are they in that 160 acre quarter section... I have
no idea... This is the part that sucks... You either need boots on the ground to find the markers, or you need to go to the clerks office..

If you are lucky, the clerks office has online records... The LR2000 usually gives the county book and page..

Then once you figure out where the claims are, you need to then figure out if the open land is public.. The maps you get at the BLM, or
plat maps will tell you that... Patented lode claims show up on the Geocommunicator, but anything that falls along the lines of the PLSS won't
show up, such as homesteads.. Where I've been digging its a smattering of lode claims, placer claims, some patented(private) some not,
state land, BLM, homesteads, and all kinds of other fun stuff...

I've figured out just enough to be dangerous, its a lot to learn, and some of it can be very confusing. The good thing is the folks at
the BLM have all been really nice, not always helpful, but they try and least get me to the person I need to talk to... Generally you
should be looking for the "land law officer".
And the lady's down at the clerks office, they've been fantastic.. They'll e-mail anything I want for free, if I go there its a dollar a copy...

Good luck, its very confusing at first.

 

[steveh2112]

i've watched many videos and poked around on those website and now i'm totally confused about how to find exactly where a claim is.

does everybody do this before jumping in their car and heading out with their pans and metal detectors? i notice many claims are decades old but still marked as active. what happens if you 'accidentally' end up on someones claim? just based on my brief scan it looks like most creeks in the sierras are already claimed.

 

[bobw53]

i've watched many videos and poked around on those website and now i'm totally confused about how to find exactly where a claim is.

The only way to figure out EXACTLY where a claim is, is to go down to the clerks office and pull the paperwork.

 

[steveh2112]

ok, i think i figured it out, this is what i'm doing.

on google maps i find a nice looking creek since it shows creeks and roads very nice. right click a spot to get lat/long
go to google earth, paste the lat/long then check it looks like a good spot visually and has a good elevation dropoff
then go to http://www.mylandmatters.org/Maps/ClaimsCa/GetMap and move the cursor around, looking at the bottom left status bar lat/long and scroll around until you find the spot there
select 'identify' the i button and click in the square with the lat/long you found
get the claim data, in my case for 39.152807, -120.526769 i get 15N 13E 16 NW
on google earth with that PLSS thing installed from the above link, zoom out until you see the red squares for 15N 13E in my case, then find section 16. so the claim is in the NW (upper left) quadrant of section 16.

maybe i'll make a video since the one on youtube are not clear.

 

[Hoser John]

Or you can simply call the BLM public room in your state and request a copy($1 a page last year sent to your home in a few days) of any claim,any section you want and get their best answer. The local tax and recorders offices have the latest up to date info on claims as from the day of claim the claimant has 90 days to record with the BLM. LR2000 and Geo Com notoriously inaccurate but a good place to start. Feets on the ground still reigns supreme as discovery mandatory anyhow to claim-John

 

[bobw53]

get the claim data, in my case for 39.152807, -120.526769 i get 15N 13E 16 NW
on google earth with that PLSS thing installed from the above link, zoom out until you see the red squares for 15N 13E in my case, then find section 16. so the claim is in the NW (upper left) quadrant of section 16.

maybe i'll make a video since the one on youtube are not clear.

That one is easy... Only claim in the section, and according to the LR2000, its only in NW quadrant, and its 160acres... Providing there were no errors in the entry,
you're done... Then of course there are potentially the claims that haven't shown up online yet..

And you don't have to go flipping back and forth between different maps. you can turn PLSS grid on in the landmatters map, then you have to hit the refresh button on the
upper right, and then the grid pops up.

Feets on the ground still reigns supreme as discovery mandatory anyhow to claim-John

This is where it gets stupid... FEDERAL claim, on FEDERAL land, recorded at the COUNTY level, and also governed by STATE laws...

The discovery aspect of staking a claim in New Mexico was eliminated in 1981... And our stakes have to be at least 4 feet tall, not 3 feet..

The whole thing is just strange.

 

[Clay Diggins]

You really don't need to go hopping around between maps. Land Matters shows the PLSS, Mining Claims, Land Status, Aerial Photos, Topo Map and anything else you might need right on any State Mining Claims Map.

We've even made a video tutorial on how to use those features. You can also link to that tutorial right from the Mining Claims main page.

You can't know everything about the mining claims from that or any other map. You will need to check the County Recorder's office for the area you are researching in before you can get a real idea on where those claims may be. Lucky for you Land Matters has already thought of that and you will find a map layer marked "County Recorders" right along with the rest of the mining claim map layers. Turn that on and when you click the "i" button you will be given a direct link to that County Recorder office. Some of them even let you look up the Location Notices online.

I caution you about using the BLM to get copies of the Location Notices. They may be less expensive but they aren't official records. There are some "big club" claims that have never been recorded at the county and are invalid for lack of meeting that requirement. Check with the recorder's office to be sure - you already know the BLM has an informational filing so check to see if the locator met their legal responsibility to record the claim at the county.

In one of the counties Hoser John has claims the county assessor does keep some location notices for tax purposes. Near as I can tell there are only three counties in the U.S. where that is the case. Check the County Recorder's office and not the Tax Assessor - the legal requirement for a valid claim is recording at the County Recorder's - the Tax assessor copy doesn't meet that requirement.

None of this will get you any more current than about 100 days. The locator has 90 days after staking to make a record at the county and file a notice with the BLM. The BLM is notoriously slow to update their files but most County Recorders will have their recordings updated within a week. That still leaves you more than three months behind. When you put boots on the ground you must LOOK for new monuments. It's your legal obligation to discover the status of the land before you prospect.

This seems difficult now but it will eventually all become second nature. Researching before entering the land is just one of the many skills the successful prospector must master. There is a lot more to this than panning but the reward is worth it if you succeed.

Heavy Pans

 

[steveh2112]

thanks all for the info. Clay Diggings, what do you mean my 'When you put boots on the ground you must LOOK for new monuments'? are you refering to the 3 stones piled on top of each other or something else? will claim owners typically mark their land and if so how?

thx

 

[beekbuster]

county recorder is the only way to know 100 percent. mylandmatters.org is a great site though. ive been down that road, and it was claimed, all 10 miles of it. didnt show it online though.

 

[steveh2112]

county recorder is the only way to know 100 percent. mylandmatters.org is a great site though. ive been down that road, and it was claimed, all 10 miles of it. didnt show it online though.

so what if you do find yourself on someones claim but no one is around so you don't know. then the owner shows up. what could happen?

are you saying everyone goes into the county recorders office before prospecting? that sounds like a very time consuming process.

 

[steveh2112]

also, i've looked at the video for mylandmatters and played with the site for a while now. the gold rectangles represent 'township and range' and are a very large area. when you click i and select a gold rectangle, you get the claim info and that lists the section and quarter section which i now understand what that is. BUT, http://www.mylandmatters.org/Maps/ClaimsCa/GetMap does not display section numbers (at least that i can find) so if you need to see exactly where that claim is, and get its gps coords to load into you gps device, you need to move to google earth with the PLSS overlay right?

if you can get the gps coord of the claim directly from mylandmatters.org, can someone please explain?

if i go to the county recorders office, will they give me a map with claims shown? or list a list of PLSS locations or better yet, a lat/long for the corners of the claim?

and again i have to ask, does everyone do this? i can't think most amateur prospectors spend this much time and effort researching before panning, that's not the impression i get for the thousands of youtube videos about finding gold.

 

[Clay Diggins]

Land Matters does show Township Range Section and quarter quarter sections. Just click the box next to PLSS and reload the map.

At the County Recorder you will be looking for the "Location Notice" for each claim. If the locator of the claim recorded at the County Recorder before they filed a notice with the BLM the information returned on the Land Matters map will have the "book and page number". Give that to the recorder and they will give you a copy of the original location notice.

The Location Notice will have a map attached made by the person who located the claim. That map is your guide to where the claim is. It will not normally have GPS corners. The location of claims are described either by "aliquot part" (a specific portion of the PLSS grid) or by "metes and bounds" (Distance and compass direction).

Neither the County Recorder or any other government agency will have a claims map. You must rely on the description on the Location Notice you get from the County Recorder's office.

If the claim is made by aliquot part you can tell from the written description where it is located.

Heavy Pans

 

[winners58]

public land is open to other users like hunting or hiking, just dont take your pan out if your on someone's claim
you have to learn PLSS and TRS, this shows how a section could be divided as in the example the 20 acre claim is E½NE¼NE¼ of sec. 20
http://www.blm.gov/or/programs/minerals/files/section.pdf
then you can go to BLM and look up the actual filing it will look just like the example. (E½ of the NE¼ of the NE¼)
on the web it will only show the quarter Sec. as at the end of the example as in the NE quarter (smallest aliquot part to largest)
.

 

[steveh2112]

great, thanks, so i clicked PLSS check box then click on the '+' sign to the left of the claim info and the section grid came up on the map. so i get it now. nice tool, thanks, i will definitely donate to that.

so this looks like a nice way to find a good spot right? find where all the claims are then find a spot between claims that is open. i understand i'd also have to follow up with a visit to the recorders office but this looks like a great start.

thanks for explaining.

 

[steveh2112]

sorry, duplicate post

 

[KRIKITTS]

and again i have to ask, does everyone do this? i can't think most amateur prospectors spend this much time and effort researching before panning, that's not the impression i get for the thousands of youtube videos about finding gold.

Those of us who learned the right way do... some learned wrong some dont know and some dont probably care ... they got other names for those folks...

 

[steveh2112]

one more question about mylandmatters.org. having found a spot i like the look of, i can see the lat/long in the status bar bottom left. is there an easy way to get that into the copy/paste buffer so i can paste it into google earth, or open that location directly in google earth?

i see the XY button and that brings up a lat/long box but i can't copy and paste that format into GE. it probably would work if lat was listed before long, maybe i'll write a little tool to reformat the copy buffer

thanks