How to research a claim in less than 600 words.
I was going to reply to your PM privately jvan but as I get these questions a lot and there is nothing in my post that involves your location I'm putting it here so others can learn.
I map mineral lands and claims for mining companies. You will need to get a better grip on what a claim is and how the process is handled before you waste your money or your time.
It sounds like you've found a good location that might be open to claim.
The process we use professionally is to:
1. Determine what the Legal Land Description (LLD) is. The LLD consists of the Meridian, Township, Range, Section, Quarter Section and aliquot part of the location. You can determine that description from the Public Land Survey System (PLSS). The PLSS is the Legal Land Description by which mining claims are made by. That's the law and has been since 1789 - no matter what parcel# the tax assessors office call it. You can determine the PLSS of your location by using the
Land Status Map and turning on the PLSS layer and zooming in to your area of interest.
2. Take that LLD and look up the land status on the
Master Title Plat map for the Township your claim is in. This will tell you if the land is claimable or closed to claims. All restrictions will be noted on the Master Title Plat and it's supplements. You can download a free copy of that Master Title Plat at the Government Land Office website.
If the land you are interested comes up as locatable on the Master Title Plat go to number 3 below. If not you will not be able to make the claim. Just because somebody claimed land before doesn't mean it was claimable. The BLM is well known for accepting claim files and money on claims they will eventually challenge and close.
3. Look up the LLD on the
BLM LR2000 database website. This will tell you the current file status for all the claims in the LLD. If a new claim is filed with the BLM it could take anywhere from a week to more than a year before it will show up there. Even so it's a free stop and the information you get on the area claims will help you at the next step.
Just because the BLM shows or doesn't show an open (or closed) claim where you are looking you still don't know the whole story until you do the next two steps.
4. Check for Mining Claim Location Notices for that LLD at the
County Recorders Office. If you got a list of the closed claims, with their location date, you can eliminate those claims from your final list - much cheaper.
Most Counties have an online search feature so you can look that up yourself at home. Find the Mining Location Notices, Location Amendments and annual filings for the closed claim and all the claims nearby. You will need the grantors names and the Book and Page each is recorded on.
Mining Claim Location Notice and Legal Land Description are how County Recorder's deal with Mining Claims. They don't keep a map of claims. They do not do searches for location notices without knowing the Grantor name, or the Grantee, or the LLD or the Book and Page. Most Counties charge for record searches that don't have at least two of the above classifications. The County Recorder can help you a lot, treat them well and it can be easy.
Once you have a list of the Book and Page Numbers for the above recordings contact the County Recorder (mail, phone, email, walk in doesn't matter) and order copies of all the pages of each Recording on your list. There will be a charge for this but by having the Names and Book and Page Numbers you only have to pay for the copies - not thousands of dollars in research fees. You do not need the copies certified.
5. Take the information from the claims records you got that are currently active and draw out each claim on a topo map. There should be a map with each claim location. Once you have all the active claims on the map look and see if the area you are interested in is still open (no other claims there). Don't try to "fix" the claim locations if they overlap - that happens and it's one of the things you are looking for on your map. It's entirely possible the claim that was dropped there was an overclaim and there really isn't anything open.
6. If everything looks clear once you've done the above steps it's time to put the boots on the ground. Take your map with you and look around the claim area and see if there are any recent monuments or stakes. LOOK for a new claim there. If it's all good go ahead and put up a monument stake with your location notice and map and mark the claim boundaries.
How you stake and how you describe the claim (aliquot part or metes and bounds) will be determined by what you learned about the area of land you are claiming. In most cases a simple LLD is all you will need as a description. Sometimes you will need to use metes and bounds (distance and direction). You won't know that until you have made your map and checked the location on the ground.
At that point you
might have a valid claim. Everyone who locates a claim in California has 90 days to make a public Mining Claim Location Notice at the County Recorder and to give an informational notice, pay fees and obtain a claim number from the BLM. In other words somebody else might already have made a claim there before you but they just haven't made their recording/filing yet. It's all about who puts up the first monument, not when you record or file the location.
Doing these things out of order can waste a lot of time and when it comes to staking, recording or filing your claims it could invalidate them. I've put several links in here to help you along.
Questions are welcome but please be patient - I'm really busy right now and answers may be slow.
Heavy Pans
dogs-John
How cool to have a claim right close to home.
