The copper era., 1909-08-26
Mining Locations of H. H. Yard and the North California Mining Company In National Forest Declared
 Invalid.

In National Forest Declared
 Invalid.
 The following article, from Wash ington headquarters, will be of in- terest to mining men;
 First assistant secretary of the in- terior, Frank Pierce, has just made a decision declaring invalid certain mining locations claimed by H. H. Yard and the North California Min ing company for land in the Plumas National Forest, California. This decision is the culmination of a con troversy between the government and the mining claimants, which was actively begun on March 16, 1907. Before the date it was found that MT. Yard and the North California Mining company were claiming ap- proximately 26O,OOO acres of heavily timbered land, worth approximately $5, ,000, ,000, and located in the Plumas National Forest, in Butte and Plumas counties, California.
 
 department of the interior and the forest service a geological examina- tion was made of part of the land. h consequence of this examination the North California Mining company relinquished locations covering bout 34 ,000 acres of land, and charges were made by the commissioner of the general land office against locations for Il ,0O0 acres.
 MT. Yard and the company con- tended that the department of the interior had no jurisdiction to de- termine the validity of the locations. The testimony at the hearing before the local land office at Susanyille, California, shows that the I1,OG0 acres were covered with about I6O,- 100000 board feet of timber, valued at about S320, 900, tand that although h the claims had been held by MT. Yard and the Mining company for from two to five years, there had been re- covered only about B worth of gold, and this recovery was made during six months of prospecting after the hearing had been ordered.
 The local office at Susanville, on February 27, 1908, decided that the charges made by the government had been sustained, and that the land did not contain such valuable mineral deposits as would subject them to entry under the mining laws.
 The claimants appealed from the decision of the local officers to the commissioner of the general land office, but on August 27, 1908, the commissioners sustained the local officers. The decision of First As sistant Secretary Pierce now finally sustains the commissioner.
 It is the policy of the government to foster and encourage mining. The law permits prospecting for minerals upon National Forests and allows the perfection of mining claims upon National Forests to the same extent as upon the vacant public land. The policy of both the department of the interior and the forest service is to foster and encourage legitimate min ing operations, and not to attack mining locations which are believed to be in any way valid, as we'll as as- sist in the development of valid min ing claim.
 The law authorizes, and the forest service does grant, the free use of timber to miners in the preliminary development of their claims, unless there is sufficient stand of timber for that purpose upon the claims. The locations made by Mir. Yard and the mixing company have retarded the timber development of a rich section of the country lying along the newly constructed Western Pa ci6c railroad.
 Since the claims are located in a more or less mineralized country, in which successful mining has been done in the past, the locations for 265, ,000 acres have necessarily em- braced some mineral lands, and as i claimants have carried on the mining operations, these mineral lands hay e really been withheld from legitimate miners, and the mineral develop ment of that section has been inter- fered with and retarded by the fraudulent claims. No effort has been made by the claimants to dis cover or develop minerals upon any of the lands.
 The decision of the first assistant secretary of the interior has estab-