where the same may be situated, evidence of such possession and working of the claims for such period shall be sufficient to establish a right to a patent thereto under this chapter, in the absence of any adverse claim; but nothing in this chapter shall be deemed to impair any lien which may have attached in any way whatever to any mining claim or property thereto attached prior to the issuance of a patent. Proceedings for patent for placer May 10, 1872, SEC. 2333. Where the same person, association, or corporation is in possession of a placer claim, and also a claim, etc. vein or lode included within the boundaries thereof, ap- 17 s. 94. plication shall be made for a patent for the placer claim, with the statement that it includes such vein or lode, and in such case a patent shall issue for the placer claim, subject to the provisions of this chapter, including such vein or lode, upon the payment of five dollars per acre for such vein or lode claim and twenty-five feet of surface on each side thereof. The remainder of the placer claim or any placer claim not embracing any vein or lode claim shall be paid for at the rate of two dollars and fifty cents per acre, together with all costs of proceedings: and where a vein or lode, such as is described in section twenty-three hundred and twenty, is known to exist within the boundaries of a placer claim, an application for a patent for such placer claim which does not include an application for the vein or lode claim shall be construed as a conclusive declaration that the claimant of the placer claim has no right of possession of the vein or lode claim; but where the existence of a vein or lode in a placer claim is not known, a patent for the placer claim shall convey all valuable mineral and other deposits within the boundaries thereof. eral to appoint May 10, 1872, SEC. 2334. The surveyor-general of the United States Surveyor gen. may appoint in each land district containing mineral surveyors of minlands as many competent surveyors as shall apply for ing claims, etc. appointment to survey mining claims. The expenses of 17 8. 95. the survey of vein or lode claims, and the survey and subdivision of placer claims into smaller quantities than one hundred and sixty acres, together with the cost of publication of notices, shall be paid by the applicants, and they shall be at liberty to obtain the same at the most reasonable rates, and they shall also be at liberty to employ any United States deputy surveyor to make the survey. The Commissioner of the General Land Office shall also have power to establish the maximum charges for surveys and publication of notices under this chapter; and, in case of excessive charges for publication, he may designate any newspaper published in a land district where mines are situated for the publication of mining notices in such district, and fix the rates to be charged by such paper; and, to the end that the Commissioner may be fully informed on the subject, each Verification of affidavits, etc. 17 S. 95. applicant shall file with the register a sworn statement of all charges and fees paid by such applicant for publication and surveys, together with all fees and money paid the register and the receiver of the land office, which statement shall be transmitted, with the other papers in the case, to the Commissioner of the General Land Office. SEC. 2335. All affidavits required to be made under this May 10, 1872 chapter may be verified before any officer authorized to administer oaths within the land district where the claims may be situated, and all testimony and proofs may be taken before any such officer, and, when duly certified by the officer taking the same, shall have the same force and effect as if taken before the register and receiver of the land office. In cases of contest as to the mineral or agricultural character of land, the testimony and proofs may be taken as herein provided on personal notice of at least ten days to the opposing party; or if such party can not be found, then by publication of at least once a week for thirty days in a newspaper, to be designated by the register of the land office as published nearest to the location. of such land; and the register shall require proof that such notice has been given. Where veins intersect, etc. 17 S. 96. SEC. 2336. Where two or more veins intersect or cross May 10, 1872, each other, priority of title shall govern, and such prior location shall be entitled to all ore or mineral contained within the space of intersection; but the subsequent location shall have the right of way through the space of intersection for the purposes of the convenient working of the mine. And where two or more veins unite, the oldest or prior location shall take the vein below the point of union, including all the space of intersection. Patents for nonmineral lands, etc. 17 S. 96. SEC. 2337. Where nonmineral land not contiguous to the vein or lode is used or occupied by the proprietor of May 10, 1872, such vein or lode for mining or milling purposes, such nonadjacent surface ground may be embraced and included in an application for a patent for such vein or lode, and the same may be patented therewith, subject to the same preliminary requirements as to survey and notice as are applicable to veins or lodes; but no location hereafter made of such nonadjacent land shall exceed five acres, and payment for the same must be made at the same rate as fixed by this chapter for the superfices of the lode. The owner of a quartz mill or reduction works, not owning a mine in connection therewith, may also receive a patent for his mill site, as provided in this section. SEC. 2338. As a condition of sale, in the absence of be made by local necessary legislation by Congress, the local legislature of July 26, 1866, any State or Territory may provide rules for working mines, involving easements, drainage, and other necessary means to their complete development; and those conditions shall be fully expressed in the patent. What conditions of sale may legislature. 14 S. 252. to use of water canals. 14 S. 253. SEC. 2339. Whenever, by priority of possession, rights Vested rights to the use of water for mining, agricultural, manufac- for mining, etc.; turing, or other purposes, have vested and accrued, and right of way for the same are recognized and acknowledged by the local July 26, 1866, customs, laws, and the decisions of courts, the possessors and owners of such vested rights shall be maintained and protected in the same; and the right of way for the construction of ditches and canals for the purposes herein specified is acknowledged and confirmed; but whenever any person, in the construction of any ditch or canal, injures or damages the possession of any settler on the public domain, the party committing such injury or damage shall be liable to the party injured for such injury or damage. homesteads sub accrued water July 9, 1870, 16 S. 218. Mineral land uable mines are discovered open in which no val to homesteads. July 26, 1866, 14 S. 253. SEC. 2340. All patents granted, or preemption or home- Patents, presteads allowed, shall be subject to any vested and accrued emptions, and water rights, or rights to ditches and reservoirs used in ject to vested and connection with such water rights, as may have been rights. acquired under or recognized by the preceding section. SEC. 2341. Wherever, upon the lands heretofore designated as mineral lands, which have been excluded from survey and sale, there have been homesteads made by citizens of the United States, or persons who have declared their intention to become citizens, which homesteads have been made, improved, and used for agricultural purposes, and upon which there have been no valuable mines of gold, silver, cinnabar, or copper discovered, and which are properly agricultural lands, the settlers or owners of such homesteads shall have a right of preemption thereto, and shall be entitled to purchase the same at the price of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, and in quantity not to exceed one hundred and sixty acres; or they may avail themselves of the provisions of chapter five of this Title, relating to "Homesteads." how set apart as lands. SEC. 2342. Upon the survey of the lands described in Mineral lands, the preceding section, the Secretary of the Interior may agricultural designate and set apart such portions of the same as are clearly agricultural lands, which lands shall thereafter 14 S. 253. be subject to preemption and sale as other public lands, and be subject to all the laws and regulations applicable to the same. July 26, 1866, land districts and SEC. 2343. The President is authorized to establish ad- Additional ditional land districts, and to appoint the necessary offi- officers, power of cers under existing laws, wherever he may deem the the President to same necessary for the public convenience in executing July 26, 1866, the provisions of this chapter. provide. 14 S. 252. of Provisions this chapter not May 10, 1872, SEC. 2344. Nothing contained in this chapter shall be construed to impair, in any way, rights or interests in to affect certain mining property acquired under existing laws; nor to rights. affect the provisions of the Act entitled "An Act grant- 17 s. 96. ing to A. Sutro the right of way and other privileges to 16 s. 218. aid in the construction of a draining and exploring 36039-23-18 July 9, 1870. Mineral lands in certain States excepted. 17 S. 465. tunnel to the Comstock lode, in the State of Nevada," approved July twenty-five, eighteen hundred and sixty SEC. 2345. The provisions of the preceding sections of this chapter shall not apply to the mineral lands situated Feb. 18, 1873, in the States of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, which are declared free and open to exploration and purchase, according to legal subdivisions, in like manner as before the tenth day of May, eighteen hundred and seventy-two. And any bona fide entries of such lands within the States named since the tenth day of May, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, may be patented without reference to any of the foregoing provisions of this chapter. Such lands shall be offered for public sale in the same manner, at the same minimum price, and under the same rights of preemption as other public lands. Grant of lands to States or cor SEC. 2346. No Act passed at the first session of porations not to the Thirty-eighth Congress, granting lands to States or include mineral corporations to aid in the construction of roads or for Jan. 30, 1865, other purposes, or to extend the time of grants made lands. 13 S. 567. prior to the thirtieth day of January, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, shall be so construed as to embrace mineral lands, which in all cases are reserved exclusively to the United States, unless otherwise specially provided in the Act or Acts making the grant. ACTS OF CONGRESS PASSED SUBSEQUENT TO THE REVISED STATUTES. An Act To amend the Act entitled "An Act to promote the development of the mining resources of the United States," passed May tenth, eighteen hundred and seventy-two. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress Claim located assembled, That the provisions of the fifth section of 1872, first annual the Act entitled "An Act to promote the development of tended to Jan. 1, the mining resources of the United States," passed May prior to May 10, expenditure ex 1875. tenth, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, which requires expenditures of labor and improvements on claims located prior to the passage of said Act, are hereby so amended that the time for the first annual expenditure on claims located prior to the passage of said Act shall be extended to the first day of January, eighteen hundred and seventy-five. Approved, June 6, 1874 (18 Stat. 61). An Act To amend section two thousand three hundred and twentyfour of the Revised Statutes, relating to the development of the mining resources of the United States. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress ed in a tunnel assembled, That section two thousand three hundred Money expendand twenty-four of the Revised Statutes be, and the considered as exsame is hereby, amended so that where a person or com- pended on the pany has or may run a tunnel for the purpose of developing a lode or lodes, owned by said person or company, the money so expended in said tunnel shall be taken and considered as expended on said lode or lodes, whether located prior to or since the passage of said Act; and such person or company shall not be required to perform work on the surface of said lode or lodes in order to hold the same as required by said Act. Approved, February 11, 1875 (18 Stat. 315). An Act To exclude the States of Missouri and Kansas from the provisions of the Act of Congress entitled "An Act to promote the development of the mining resources of the United States," approved May tenth, eighteen hundred and seventy-two. Kansas excluded Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That within the States of Missouri and Kan- Missouri and sas deposits of coal, iron, lead, or other mineral be, and from the operathey are hereby, excluded from the operation of the tion of the minAct entitled "An Act to promote the development of the mining resources of the United States," approved May tenth, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, and all lands in said States shall be subject to disposal as agricultural lands.* Approved, May 5, 1876 (19 Stat. 52). An Act Authorizing the citizens of Colorado, Nevada, and the Territories to fell and remove timber on the public domain for mining and domestic purposes. Citizens of Col fell and remove public domain for Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That all citizens of the United States and other per-orado, Nevada, sons, bona fide residents of the State of Colorado, or and the TerritoNevada, or either of the Territories of New Mexico, Ari- ries authorized to zona, Utah, Wyoming, Dakota, Idaho, or Montana, and timber on the all other mineral districts of the United States, shall be, mining and doand are hereby, authorized and permitted to fell and mestic purposes. remove, for building, agricultural, mining, or other domestic purposes, any timber or other trees growing or being on the public lands, said lands being mineral, and not subject to entry under existing laws of the United States, except for mineral entry, in either of said States, Territories, or districts of which such citizens or persons may be at the time bona fide residents, subject to such rules and regulations as the Secretary of the Interior may prescribe for the protection of the timber and of the undergrowth growing upon such lands, and for other The mineral-land laws do not apply to Oklahoma; see Sec. 16 of the Act of Mar. 3, 1891 (26 Stat. 989-1026). |