We’re excited and intimidated to see that 10,000 have logged on and found the time to read our blog!

Excited because we love talking to people about mining… intimidated by the sheer number. Please take the time to comment at hillshistory1876@gmail.com if you have a subject of interest, a claim you want researched, or any question you might have about information we post.

We’ve promised a couple of time to “tell you a story” about some of our research ventures. One was outlined in our last blog. There are so many “characters” in the Black Hills (probably including ourselves!) that there is an unlimited supply of stories to tell…

One of these characters suits the profile of the old-time Black Hills prospector to a tee. He’s a little gruff and rough, a little grizzly and a lot evasive when you talk gold. We’re sure of his knowledge as to where to find gold; we’re not so sure of his ability to stake a claim and hold it!

We have a claim on Rapid Creek. We found that claim about eight years ago using BLM to verify it was available. The problem was that a sign on the property stated it was already claimed. We checked at the county… yes, a location certificate had been filed in May. It was June.
We checked again at BLM, but it hadn’t been filed there yet. That’s okay, you’ve got 90 days from date of location to file with BLM.

We kindof forgot about it… already staked. Then one day 90+ days hence, we decided to check again with BLM. Hadn’t been filed!

What we found was this. The party who had the claim located did the same thing each year. He’d file a location certificate with the county each year which held the claim for 90 days. He never followed up with BLM.

We obtained the claim by locating in April of the following spring!

A friend of this guy must have taken his advice! We helped a group of friends find a claim on California Gulch last year, or was it two years ago! We had an eye on adjacent Friday Gulch for ourselves.
Winter arrived and we didn’t get to the area that fall. The following spring we couldn’t make it down that way but asked a friend, in exchange for including him on the claim, to take a location certificate with him, make discovery and hang paper.

We found out a month or so later he never made it, wasn’t interested.

We finally made it to Friday Gulch despite some wrong turns, engines overheating, weather allowing!
What we saw when we got there made our hearts stand still. Rim-to-rim of the gulch there were signs posted, “Mineral trespass”. At first we were disheartened – a wasted trip. Then we started thinking… BLM showed no claims here since 2005. Is it a valid claim? If it is… it’s gotta be 160 acres (maximum allowed) plus!

We found he had filed a 40-acre claim in June with the county. So we just worked around that 40 acres! We posted a location certificate. When the 90 days was up and he hadn’t filed at BLM, we helped some friends stake more claims!

So let us take a look… if you know specifically where you want a claim we might be able to find one of these exceptions for you!

We’ve still got an excellent location available in a highly acclaimed gold region… we need at 4-wheel drive! Wanna trade? Maybe your car dealer might want a claim? Email us at hillshistory1876@gmail.com