Harrisburg Mining District (Utah). Recorder Mining records, 1871-1897.

The Harrisburg Mining District (originally the Union Mining District) was organized in 1871, after the discovery of silver at Silver Reef. In accordance with established practice, which Congress enacted into law the following year (1872), mineral deposits in the public domain were free and open to exploration, and locators of the same had exclusive right of possession. Local mining districts managed mining operations and kept a record of claims. Statutes at Large, Treaties, and Proclamations, of the United States of America, vol. XVII, chap. 152). The Harrisburg Mining District record books contain the minutes of early meetings held by the miners and the by laws adopted for the district. Thereafter, they contain primarily mining claims or notices of location. For each notice the mining district recorder reported the names of locators, the name of the mining claim, and a legal description of the location. In addition to notices of location, the mining record books include other miningdocuments such as, mining deeds, documents validating labor performed on claims, documents about water rights, notices of relocation, protests against notices of location, amended notices, and maps identifying the location of particular claims.