The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1903-07-10

aside and let 'em shoot ii out
III either had been a professional claim
jumper or n 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 no
call to interfere. 1t would not have
been neighborly and maybe not quite
safe. They were both square men and
good miners, who knew their rights and
how TO stand up for em. We were sor-
ry enough for good men were none too
thick IN Mercur, but it was their party,
and we were not invited.
The trouble came about i'm this way:
Their claims joined on the sides. Wal
ker's was located back i'm the seventies,
but he followed the placer boom into
Idaho and only did his assessment
work until shortly after Ben Jones To-
Gated the ground to the west, when he
came back and went to work i'm good
earnest. He struck Il splendid lead and
after doing the necessary development
applied for patent. The official sur
vey showed his claim bore more to the
west than anybody supposed and at
the south end extended some sixty feet
over on the ground Jones was working
and took in his shaft. Now, the shaft
was down 200 feet or more, and had
cost a lot of good money and hard
work, and was i'm 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
owner may follow the vein on its dip
(Which is its direction into the EARTH
between his end lines TO the lower re-
gions, if ne wants To, and all the ore in
1t belongs TO him. This may not strike
you as quite fair, but is mining law
nevertheless, as held by the courts, and
miners often find their best workings
under the surface ground of their
neighbors
To understand this trouble you ought
to know how mining locations are
made. \ claim may be LOO feet long
by 800 on each side of the discovery.
When it is located. stakes or monu-
ments are put up at the point of dis
cOvery and at each corner, showing its
dimensions and direction, and de
scription of it, giving date of location
and name of locator, is recorded with
% tfin nd
thereafter be changed, and all subse-
quent locations are made with refer
ence to il.
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 Il
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 10 the older claim. TAX
ing Walkers west line for his east He
found Walkers northwest corner stake
all right and stepped 100 feet In a
southwestCrly 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 300 feet westward ut right
angles To the other line. as nearly as h.
could guess Il, to where he intercepted
the other line lie called that point
Walkers southwest corner and his
northeast and put up a monument.
You see how easy it is to make u mis-
take of few feet. and you will also
see, if you are as bright as you look,
that it wouldn't be difficult some pleas
ant 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 Il 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 ii if he got the apex and
take all of his ore.
He had staked the ground himself,
and had been honest and careful about
it. and had spent all his money and two
years of awfully hard work in the
shaft. He was absolutely certain
Walker had floated his claim and in
tended TO steal the ground, and he
didn't propose to let it go that way. To
go TO court meant big money for law
yers. surveyors and experts, and he
didn't have any money to throw away.
Besides, courts were slow, and he
would be enjoined from taking out ore
until the case was decided, and then
the chances were about even it would
be decided wrong anyway. The ground
was his. He had located and developed
It and wasn't going TO be beaten out of
II. So the night after the survey he
<Iuictly moved his tent down near the
|shaft went to town ana got Ninches-