Free Coinage Mining District (Utah). Recorder
Abstract
Biography/History Notes
In local areas miners organized mining districts and elected district recorders to oversee mining operations and keep records of claims. The by-laws of the Free Coinage District required that all claims be distinctly marked on the ground by stakes or monuments, both at the point of discovery and at the corners. Prospectors were allowed up to 1500 feet in length and 300 feet in width as per federal regulation. Miners were required to have claims recorded by the district recorder within 30 days of discovery.
Free Coinage by-laws provided for a mining district recorder to be elected by a majority of qualified voters in the district for a two year term. Bone fide voters included all who held 'live' claims within the district, whether recorded in the records of the Free Coinage District or the records of the Tooele County recorder.
Free Coinage by-laws provided for the district recorder to appoint one or more 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). The mining records of the Free Coinage District were transferred to the office of the Tooele County recorder.