Blue Mountain Mining District (Utah). Recorder

Entity: 3124
Entity Type: Mining District

Abstract

The floods of prospectors who searched for gold along the Colorado and San Juan Rivers in the 1890s also explored the Blue Mountain area near Monticello. Blue Mountain speculators organized the Blue Mountain District on 9 December 1892. At their first meeting they established boundaries twenty square miles, which included "the Government Monument on . . . South Peak in the Blue Mountains," and adopted by-laws for the district.. This was done in accordance with federal law which stated that mineral deposits in the public domain were free and open to exploration, and locators of the same had exclusive right of possession inasmuch as they complied with federal law and the regulations of local mining districts. Miners organized local districts to manage mining activity and record claims. Until 1897, when the Utah Legislature enacted a mining law transferring record keeping responsibility to county recorders, mining district recorders kept official records of mining claims.

Biography/History Notes

Nineteenth century mining districts served two primary functions. They established rules and regulations based on federal law and adapted to local needs, and they selected a recorder to keep official records concerning each claim. At their organizational meeting, Blue Mountain prospectors elected a recorder. They established guidelines for making both placer and lode claims and for the annual assessment labor required to maintain and perfect these claims. In September 1894 Blue Mountain miners met at Monticello to revise the by-laws. The revisions more specifically defined the way claims should be marked and more specifically identified information required to be recorded in location notices.

In September 1894 Blue Mountain miners met at Monticello to revise the by-laws. The revisions more specifically defined the way claims should be marked at each corner with substantial stakes or monuments of stone and with posted signs bearing identification information. The new by-laws more specifically identified information required to be recorded in the notice of location, and also more specifically regulated assessment labor, which by federal law was to be $100 annually. Blue Mountain miners specified that one day of labor was to be counted as $5. In case placer claim holders held claims smaller than the law allowed, they could maintain the claim with proportionately less assessment labor. With their revisions, Blue Mountain miners established guidelines for relocating old claims or reclaiming abandoned claims. They reduced the time allowed for sinking the discovery shaft to 30 days and the time allowed for recording to 60 days.

Miners at the organizational meeting elected A.L.F. MacDermott as district recorder for a two year term. They charged him and an assistant with responsibility for procuring books and stationery for keeping mining district records; with obtaining a copy of federal mining law; and with seeing that the by-laws were recorded by the San Juan County recorder as required by law (Compiled Laws of Utah, 1876, Chapter 10). The miners also elected a permanent president and secretary to officiate at annual meetings.

In 1897 the Utah Legislature enacted a mining law which transferred responsibility for recording location notices and other mining documents to county recorders (Laws of Utah, 1897, chapter 36, "Mining Claims"). All books previously kept by district recorders were to be deposited in the office of the county recorder.

Hierarchy

Blue Mountain Mining District (Utah). Recorder