Elk City mining news. (Elk City, Idaho) 1903-1913, 1904-03-05
Mineral Surveys.

The movement to correct the con-
fusion in titles in mineral claims caused
by the rulings of the general land Of
fee is spreading as the people awakes
to the Importance of the question.
1t is not only mineral claims that are
involved but timber and agricultural
land as well and it is quite often the
cas- that when the land is r%esurveyed,
the owner loses or gains, or loses on
one side and gains on another.
With mineral claims, however, it is
somewhat different as they are not des-
cribed as a certain part of a section but
as having a certain position with res
pect to a section corner. This is both
an advantage and disadvantage to the
holder. If a claim was described as a
certain part of a section and lines
should be moved by later surveys the
richest ground might be transferred
from one claim to another and the own
er would have no redress; while as at
present a man does not know whether
he has a deed to his land or not and its
determination may entail endless litiga-
ton.
The general land Office can hardly be
blamed for requiring that claims shall
be correctly described with respect to
public survey, in the patent and records,
for the records ought to show what
what land is public and what is pri-
vate, and there is no other means by
which to describe where a piece of land
is situated than by reference to the
public survey. Tie lines to local sub
jects may serve to determine the where
abouts of the lines on the ground but
not the relative position of different
surveys. For the land Office to with
draw the decisions complained of would
not mend matters. Altering the re-
cords now and then to prevent conflict
ing claims, without knowing just where
the errors exist or what the correct
description should be, would only COM
plicate matters and would cause the
records to disagree with the patents
and both of them to disagree with the
facts as they appear on the g%round-a
deplocgble state Of affairs which ought
not to exist in a government lard Of
flee. and any succession to the Office
would be tempted to try to enforce the
same or similar rules to those which
u so much comment at present.
The officials evidently meant TO correct
this but they have gone about 1t in a
wrong way. The whole fault lies with
the surveys and the injustice OF the
land office decisions consists Of in!llct-
inc the punishment Oh the innocent
miners for the errors and culpable neg
ligence of officials. The rulings requir-
inp the owner of a claim to secure an
abstract of title and surrender his
patent to the government and proceed
anew to survey and apply for a patent
for his claim il a mistake be found in
its description is decidedly unjust. AS
il is not the miners fault he should not
be forced to incur this expense and
probable litigation. And besides, II the
claim has been bonded or m~ortgaged 1t
will be practically impossible to trans
fer the supposed title conveyed by the
old patent back to the government. or
Ii the lana survey cCIietS SSIdEloAtSN
on the ground differs from the dcscrip-
ton in the field notes of that survey,
which is usually the case, a correct
mineral survey cannot be made as the
deputy mineral surveyor cannot change
the land survey. Neither is this all
but the department insists on having &
lrter applicant compel, through tho
courts if necessary, q prior patentee K
surrender his patent, not because there
is anv conflict on the ground but mere
because there is All apparent conflict OF
the land office maps drawn after fault.
field notes of faulty surveys.
The only way to arrange matters Il
justice to everybody would be to resur
vey the lines known TO be faulty, bot
of the land survey and tie lines of MN
eral surveys, at the expense of tn
government or Of the surveyors VIII
were responsible for the false descrip
ton. This, even if the lines on tn
ground were not moved, correct fiel
notes would be secured which woul
enable the land Office to have q correc
system of records and connected sheet
OF maps. 1t would also seem possibl
that a system of amendments to patent
could he instituted which would nc