The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-09-24

claim jumper, or bad man. or one
had been tenderfoot, it would have
been different.
But with Jack Walker and Ben Jones
claiming the same ground we had nc
call to interfere. 1t would not have
been neighborly and maybe not quite
safe. They We're both square men and
good miners, who knew their rights and
how to stand up for 'em. We were
sorry enough, for good men were none
too thick in Mercur, but it was their
party and we were not invited.
The trouble came about in this way.
Their claims joined on the sides. Walk
er's was located back in the seventies,
but he followed the placer boom into
Idaho, and only did his assessment work
until shortly after Ben Jones located
the ground to the west, when he came
back and went to work in good earnest.
He struck a splendid lead, and after do
ing the necessary development applied
for a patent. The official survey showed
his claim bore more to the west than
anybody supposed, and at the south
extended some 60 feet over on the ground
Jones was working and took in his
shaft. Now, the shaft was down 200
q.
money and hard work, and was In ore
besides, but that wasn't by any means
the worst. The apex of Jones' vein was
in this little triangular piece of ground,
and it was a strong vein and the only
one he had yet found.
The apex of the vein is the point
where it comes nearest the surface
When it is found on ones claim the own
er may follow the vein on its dip (which
is its direction into the EARTH between
his end lines, to the lower regions, if
he wants to, and all the ore in it be-
longs to him. This may not strike
you as quite fair, but it is mining law,
nevertheless, as held by the courts, and
miners often find their best workings
under the surface ground of their neigh
bors.
70 understand this trouble, you ought
to know how mining locations are made.
A claim may be 1000 feet long by 5000
on each side of the discovery When
1t is located, stakes or monuments are
put up at the point of discovery and
at each corner, showing its dimensions,
and direction, and a description of it,
giving date of location and name of To-
Gator, is recorded with the district re-
corder, and it cannot thereafter be
changed, and all subsequent locations
are made with reference to it.
When you remember that miners are
not surveyors and measurements are
made by stepping the ground. and the
side of a mountain is not as level as a
floor, and that courses are run by look
ing at the sun or north star, YOU will
conclude that accuracy is next to inn
possible until an actual survey is made.
Jones searched the records before he
located and tied to the older claim,
taking Walkers west line for his east.
He found Walkers northwest corner
stake all right and stepped 1900 feet in
southwesterly direction-that being
the direction the records showed the
claim to run-but failed to find the
southwest corner stake. So he went
over to the southeast one, which was
still standing, and stepped 600 feet west
ward at right angles to the other line,
as nearly as he could guess 1t, to where
he intercepted the other line. He called
that point Walkers southwest corner
and his northeast and put up a mon
ument. You see how easy 1t is to make
a mistake of a few feet and you will
also see, if YOU are as bright as you
look, that it wouldn't be difficult some
pleasant evening after Jones had struck
it, in his shaft for Walker to move his
southeast stake little to the west and
thus float his claim in that direction.
The whole thing depended on that
stake. Walkers was the prior location,
and if the stake hadn't been moved, the
ground was his, and if it had been, it
was a mighty hard thing TO prove That
swinging stakes and floating claim
is killing business, if you are caught, Or
was before courts and lawyers got so
thick, but it is sometimes done, never
theless Jones knew the law, and, of
course, knew the vein went into his
ground through the side line and that
Walker could follow it if he get the
apex, and take all Of his ore.
He had staked the ground himself,
and been honest and careful abou: it,
and had spent all his money and two
years of awfully hard work In the shaft.
He was absolutely certain Walker had
fioated his claim and intended to steal
the ground, and he didn't propose TO let
it go that way. To go to court meant
big money for lawyers, surveyors and
experts, and he didn't have any money
to throw away Besides, courls We're
slow, and he would be enjoined from
taking out ore until the case was lecid-
ed, and then the chances We're about
even it would be decided wrong any
way. The ground was his! He bad To-
Gated and developed it and wasn't going
to be beat out of it. So the night after
the survey he quietly moved his tent
down near the shaft. went to town and
got Winchesters for himself and his Two
miners: pulled up the surveyors stakes
and announced that he would hold the
property. OF course, he had no business
TO do that. What he ought to have
done was to file a contest in the land
office and protest Walkers patent, then
commence suit in the district court TO
determine the title, and that is just
what a claim jumper or blackmailer
would have done, in the hope of being
bought off. But Jones was only com
mon miner, who didn't know much about
the technicalities of the law, but did
know there was virtue in a good gun in
q righteous cause.
John Walker, although older, was by
nature q good deal such IL man as Jones.
Absolutely honest and fearies, he
thought he could come nearer guessing
what was right between man and man
thon tho courtS and when no had