Rush Valley Mining District (Utah). Recorder Mining records, 1863-1897.

Mining activity in California established precedents which were carried to Utah Territory and eventually validated when Congress passed a federal mining law in 1872. Mineral deposits on the public domain were free and open to exploration and locators of the same were to have exclusive right of possession (Statutes at Large, Treaties, and Proclamations, of the United States of America, vol. 17, chap. 152). In order to regulate mining activity and keep track of individual claims, local miners organized mining districts and appointed district recorders to keep records. Notices of location are the recorder's record of claims within the district. Each notice provides the dimensions of the claim and a description of its location. It names locators and gives the dates of location and recording. All except the earliest location notices in the Rush Valley District include a name by which the claim was identified. The minutes of miners' meetings and copies of by-laws and revised by-laws werealso recorded in the location notices record books.