One claimant, more than 20 acres?

[OwenT]

I was looking at a group of 4 placer claims today on LM and all of them only have one claimant, one is 20.5 acres, one 32, one 41.84, and one 59.29. What would have to happen for this to be corrected? Would you have to challenge the validity of the claim and go to court and it would all be a big deal? When the rules aren't followed do the claimants still have exclusive rights to the minerals until it's challenged?

 

[Goldwasher]

Well if he has proven his claims he may be ok......if not and you feel like going to court..well there's that option. You could over file hoping he challenges you, but!!!!!!

How old are the claims

 

[goldenIrishman]

This MIGHT be a situation like the one I uncovered a while back. A group of eight people filed claims of 160 acres taking up entire sections of land. Seven months or so after filing, seven of the "partners" bailed. The one remaining guy held onto the claims and never filed the required adjustments until he was caught by the BLM. It ONLY took BLM about 15 YEARS to catch on! Well he refiled the adjustments but there's still just one minor problem. He only filed it with the BLM and has never filed any adjustments with the county as required by law. Can you say invlaid claims now? I KNEW you could!

When you go to the BLM page from the Land Matters site, don't just look only at the page that comes up if it's an older claim. Take a look at the "Full report" in the PDF file link on the top of the page. Some of those records go for a couple pages and can tell you a lot.

Any time you run across something that seems "odd" on a claim it's usually worth delving into the actual status a lot closer. You have to be part Sherlock Holmes, part Perry Mason, part Jeremiah Johnson and part Houdini to find a good spot. Thinking outside the box has pretty much become required as well.

 

[OwenT]

Filed in 2002, 2009, and 2012. Definitely don't feel like court and I've never been in the area in fact I've never heard of gold on this creek and LM doesn't show any historical placer claims. I just want to go test it and a large portion of the creek is claimed, like half. Just interested.

GI, first thing I did looking for an answer was went back to your thread "Doing the 'due diligence dance'". A similar situation is possible but I'm not sure.

Also there are two separate people here with one claim each however I get the feeling they know each other because the claims follow the same naming theme. Also they both have the first name of Robert, not important but kind of weird.

 

[Goldwasher]

You do have to look into things. One thing rules are rules. If you can verify lack of proper recording. you can verify the status of the claim. It can differ from initial appearance as you start online research.