Willow Springs Mining District (Utah). Recorder
Abstract
Biography/History Notes
In accordance with federal law, mining districts adopted by-laws to regulate mining activity in local areas and elected recorders to keep records of claims. Prospectors in the Willow Springs District were required to mark their claims with 2-foot monuments at each end and at each corner. By-laws allowed miners 20 days to file a notice of location with the district recorder. Federal law required annual assessment work to maintain claims. In the Willow Springs District miners established proof that they had completed assessment labor with properly sworn affidavits.
According district by-laws Willow Springs District recorders were to be elected for one year terms at annual miners' meetings. E.W. Tripp remained district recorder for as long as the district functioned. By-laws required that he keep minutes and location notices in suitable books which were to remain open for inspection by miners in the district.
The Willow Springs Mining District recorder appointed deputy, G.W. Tripp, to assist him in his duties. In 1897 Utah Legislature enacted a mining law which transferred responsibility for keeping mining records to county recorders (Laws of Utah, 1897, chapter 36). At that time district records were transferred to the Tooele County recorder's office.