Dutch Mountain Mining District (Utah). Recorder Mining records, 1892-1894.

Throughout the decade of the 1890s mining prospectors searched for gold in the mountains of Tooele County. Miners in the area of Dutch Mountain, which is west of the current Dugway Proving Ground, apparently organized the Dutch Mountain Mining District in 1892. Federal mining law enacted in 1872 provided that valuable mineral deposits in the public domain were free and open to exploration and purchase and that the locators of the same were to have exclusive right of possession. The law authorized the organization of mining districts to record mining claims and manage mining operations in local areas (Statutes at Large, Treaties, and Proclamations, of the United States of America, 1872, vol. 17, chap. 152). Dutch Mountain Record Book A contains claims recorded in the Dutch Mountain District 1892-1894. Each claim (notice of location) affirms compliance with federal and local laws, names the locator, provides a name for the claim, and describes it both in terms of dimensions and location.Claims provide dates of discovery and filing and are signed by district recorder, A.R. Pruitt.

In addition to notices of location, Dutch Mountain records also include abstracts for the location notices in Book A, and many notices of intent to hold claims. Notices of intent to hold claims were filed in compliance with a Congressional resolution passed in 1894, suspending the requirement of annual assessment work for that year. Maintaining claims involved more than discovery, possession and recording, but also required annual labor. While Congress temporarily suspended this requirement, they did require that claim holders file notices of intent to hold claims in order to obtain this benefit.