Blue Bell Mining District (Utah). Recorder
Abstract
Biography/History Notes
In accordance with federal guidelines, mining districts adopted by-laws to regulate mining activity within the district and elected recorders to keep records of claims. Prospectors in the Blue Bell District were required to build a monument at the site within ten days after the discovery of a potential location. By-laws gave them 30 days to mark the four corners and to have a location notice recorded. By-laws required that location notices describe claims in terms of some permanent local object. According to federal law, annual assessment work was required to maintain claims. In the Blue Bell District proof of assessment labor was established by the signature of two or more witnesses. Mines in the Blue Bell District produced gold, lead and silver. Some prominent mines were the Blue Bell Lode, Twilite Lode, and the Brown Mountain Claim.
Miners in the district elected one of their number to be mining district recorder for a one year term. The recorder collected one dollar for each claim recorded and kept all records open for public inspection.
The recorder appointed deputies to assist him as needed. In 1897 the Utah Legislature enacted a mining law which transferred responsibility for keeping mining records to county recorders. (Laws of Utah, 1897, chapter 36, "Mining Claims"). The mining records of the Blue Bell District were transferred to the office of the Tooele County recorder.