The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1913-08-19
DIGEST OF JULY
LAND DECISIONS


The status of land at date of appli-
cation must govern. If not the sub
ject of entry for any cause, the appli-
cation should be rejected. To suspend
I it would be to give an unfair advan-
tage over other applicants, enabling
the applicants to keep off intending
entrvmen and affording opportunity
/ for speculation in government lands.
The land department having the
sole charge of the public lands, sur.
veyed or unsurveyed, has jurisdiction
to determine equitable as well as
legal rights of parties claiming inter
est therein
The transferee of an unpatented
entry gets no better title than the
antryman had. but he may protect
/ himself so that he may receive notice
of any proceeding against said entry
/ if he files in the local office notice
of such transfer.
! Under the law even the preference
right secured by settlement duly main
tanned, is lost unless asserted through
timely entry.
! The pendencv of contest does not
excuse noncompliance with the re-
quirements of law.
The act of 1880 accorded a sue
cessful contestant the preference
right of entry. The acceptance of any
application for the land during such
period of preferential right rests alone
upon departmental regulations.
Such applications have been permit
ted in order to prevent, as far as pos
sible, any attempted disposition of the
preference right according to the stat
ute. 1t follows, however, that any
such suspended application only
springs into existence upon the failure
of the successful contestant to avail
himself of the preference right.
Desert.
The field notes, maps and plats of
the general land office approved by the
commissioner are conclusive evidence
of surveys of public lands. and when
they show that land is not surveyed,
no other evidence is competent to ap-
prove a survey Land cannot be pat
ented until survey is made and ap.
proved
The maps and plats on file in the
general land office are conclusive upon
all persons as TO the proper description
VI DuDffC idHuS. In case OF a re-
survey, the final plating and designa-
tion of portions of sections must be
conformed. Whatever may have been
the description given in the original
entry before re-5urvey. the position
on the ground of desert land entry
can be conformed to re-survev. at least
approximately.
The patent when issued must follow
the lines of survey as finally settled.
BY no other means can certainty of
description and title be attained
The fourth section of the act of
March 3, 1891, requires the exhibition
of a plan of irrigation. The right to
the water and it's quantity and per
manency must also be shown. While
the plan adopted may be unusual, yet
if it is productive of reclamation it
meets the essence of the requirement
Until further notice, lands will not
be considered as barred from desig-
nation under the enlarged homestead
acts simply because they may be EN-
braced in desert land entries if the
lands be in all other respects subject
to such designation.
Mining.
The decision in the Alaska copper
case (32 l.. ID. 12S) as far as it re-
lates to the location on mill site
within 90 feet of the shore line of a
navigable water, is modified and win
be no longer followed in that respect.
In the Alaska Copper company, supra,
the department held that in Alaska,
the boundary line of a mill site loca-
tion could not be lawfully laid within
60 feet of the shore line of a navi-
gable body of water. This expression
is now contrary to the late view of
the department expressed in the reg
ulation of June 3. 1898, and particu-
larly January 13, 1904.
i The main purpose of the require
ment of publication and posting is to
possible conflietinp claimants and the
officers of the government that ap-
plication has been fled. When a coal
claim has been of record and pending
for a number of years and no adverse
claim has been presented or suggest
ed, and during that time the posses
sion of the claimant has been continu-
Gus and notorious, the regulations
with regard to posting and publication
may, with propriety and due safety
be waived.
A legal discovery made either be
fore or after posting and monument
ing on the ground, is sufficient to sus
tain a location. A locator is not re
quired at the peril of losing his claim
to ascertain and determine the exact
strike of the discovery vein. If he
fails to lay his claim along the strike
of the vein, he subjects himself to the
possibility of losing substantial por
tion of the vein or lode which he
might have included in his location
But this does not invalidate his loca
tion as laid and marked by him.
There is nothing inherently wrong
in permitting a mineral surveyor Il
survey a mining claim with which he
as an employe of the owner of suel
claim, had been so connected.