The history of one of our claims is a composite example of what anyone who owns a claim might expect from those who don’t know, have been misinformed or just plain don’t care!
Bob did, by his continued research, find a claim that was “just too good to pass up.” We knew the area was in high demand, so Bob and a friend walked the creek looking for a location certificate or claim posts, then found discovery. The following day we prepared a location certificate in the name of our grandson and returned to hang paper that day.
We were so excited to be claimholders again! Sunday morning dawned and we grabbed some shovels and a sluice box, our trusty pans and some boots. Our excitement made an hour drive seem like minutes, planning and speculating on what we might find!
Well, what we found wasn’t quite what we had anticipated. As we rounded the last curve to our new claim, we spotted a vehicle parked exactly where we had hung one day before.
Now Bob is a pretty mellow guy, but not too tolerant of people who flagrantly abuse a clear-cut legal issue. He did maintain his composure and approached the party (I followed with a camera). As I snapped photos of them hanging a location certificate over the top of ours, Bob queried them as to what they were doing?
Here’s lesson no. 1 on what not to do while staking a claim… The party proceeded to tell Bob they had prepared a claim certificate and driven to the Billings BLM (Bureau of Land Management) office to file the claim. They had been turned away at BLM, being informed they had to find discovery, post a location certificate on the property and file at the county level before filing at BLM. The sequence of events is critical: find discovery, post location certificate, file at county, file at BLM.
They knew the process now, but didn’t seem to notice that there was already a location certificate on the property! Lesson no. 2: Always look for location certificates, affidavit of assessment or any indication that a claim is staked!
The day wasn’t entirely ruined, but it was a little disappointing to find claim jumpers rather than gold!
The story doesn’t end here… there’s not a happily ever after to this story, just a year-by-year challenge!
We ran into this same party several weeks later when they approached us to say they had “bought into” an adjacent claim and they were putting in boundary posts. Bob asked to see their claim map because they seemed to be confused about the boundaries. He noticed that the claim had been re-located and asked why? He was informed that BLM had said they needed the location certificate amended and misconstrued that as needing re-location. The party was upset, frustrated when given a fly-over of our claim boundaries to show exactly how it laid, and stated he would assign his own MMC (mining mineral claim) number and didn’t want to deal with BLM! He proceeded to put in posts (PVC at that, you might know how we feel about (PVC!) at least 100 feet within our claim boundaries.
Now lesson #3 on what constitutes amendment of a claim and what constitutes re-location… I took this information directly from the BLM website so I didn’t misrepresent the issue:
AMENDMENTS/RELOCATIONS:
“An amendment to a location for an active mining claim or site can be made at any time and must be filed with the appropriate State Recorder’s Office before filing in the proper BLM State Office within 90 days of recording. It can be made on the same type of form as was used for the original location with “Amended” added to the title of the location notice. An amended location relates back to the original date that the mining claim or site was located. (Info on filing fees left out.)
“Amendments are used to:
1. Correct or clarify omissions or defects in the original location certification;
2. Correct legal descriptions, due to an error made on the original certificate (the location on the ground cannot be changed); and
3. Change the claim name.
“A relocation, on the other hand, is treated as a new original location which essentially covers the same land as a prior mining claim/site. As such, a relocation will be issued a new serial number and date stamp. A processing fee… is required. A relocation does not relate back to the date of any prior location and is adverse to any prior location.
“A relocation may not be established by the use of an ‘amended location notice,’ but requires a new, original notice or certificate as prescribed by state law.“This ‘relocation’ usually occurs when a miner fails to timely file the required annual filings and the claim was on federal land that is open for mineral entry so the miner wants to “re-stake” the same claim.“The major difference between an amendment and a relocation is an amendment cannot take in new acreage, but a relocation can.”
The fact was, since they had re-located the claim, our claim location pre-dated them. We had used the original boundaries of the adjacent claim as our adjoining claim line. Their re-location adjusted boundaries into our existing claim. We pretty much let that go, pointing out the discrepancy. Since that day, an annual replacement of adjacent posts has been necessary because they are moved or removed!
Again through research, we see that this same adjacent claim is not showing up on LR2000 in the township, range and section where it was located. We prepare a location certificate and proceed to the claim to determine if the location has been abandoned. A claim certificate is posted, but the MMC number is not uniform with those found in the Black Hills. We returned home (pre-cell phone days) and called BLM. They did not show a claim by that name or by that claimholders’ name, or MMC # in South Dakota. We assumed that the party had done just as they said, assigned their own MMC #.
We returned to the claim (now this is an hour’s drive to and fro each time) and proceeded to nail up our location certificate. A vehicle screeches to a halt on this dusty gravel road, and a man identifiable to us as the former claimholder proceeds to rant and rave that we have over staked him and we are claim jumping! We removed our location certificate and left, but not before showing him that his claim does not show on the BLM printout that we have.
We returned home, called BLM again! The adjacent claimholder had already called and we got a lecture from BLM about claim jumping, stating they had made an entry error, the MMC # was in Montana, but the claim was valid. We restate: always check your claim with BLM!
So that was a lesson learned… check, double check, then re-check!
This same plaeer claim, located in 2001, was in 2005 blanketed by a mining company with lode claims. Lesson no. 4 -- you cannot locate a lode or placer claim over an existing claim. Mining companies do this… they blanket a section with claims regardless of existing claims. Individuals do this… at least once a year someone tries to overstake our placer claim(s) regardless of what paperwork is hanging, how many signs we post, how much time we spend on the claim(s). If you’re not there 24/7 and you’ve got a good claim, they will come!
This leaves an interesting situation, however. Our 2001 claim is valid. It pre-dates the lode claims. Our adjacent claimholder, however, re-located once again in 2008, which forfeited all his rights to the placer claim because of a lode claim dated 2005. We don't think he is aware of that, but seriously doubt he would appreciate any input from us!
This is a lot of information. It is also some of the worst-case scenario(s) all encompassed on one individual claim. The lesson(s) learned would be to keep track of your claim, ask the right questions of the right people, and always preserve the integrity of your original claim if possible.
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