Another MinerDiggins Adventure
What follows is a text version of the 1866 Mining Act
This is the Act as it was passed in 1866
An Act granting the Right of Way
to Ditch and Canal Owners over the Public Lands,
and for other Purposes
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled, That the mineral lands of the
public domain, both surveyed and unsurveyed, are hereby declared to be free
and open to exploration and occupation by all citizens of the United States,
and those who have declared their intention to become citizens, subject to
such regulations as may be prescribed by law, and subject also to the local
customs or rules of miners in the several mining districts, so far as the
same may not be in conflict with the laws of the United States.
Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That whenever any person or association
of persons claim a vein or lode of quartz, or other rock in place, bearing
gold, silver, cinnabar, or copper, having previously occupied and improved
the same according to the local custom or rules of miners in the district
where the same is situated, and having expended in actual labor and improvements
thereon an amount of not less than one thousand dollars, and in regard to
whose possession there is no controversy or opposing claim, it shall and may
be lawful for said claimant or association of claimants to file in the local
land office a diagram of the same, so extended laterally or otherwise as to
conform to the local laws, customs, and rules of miners, and to enter such
tract and receive a patent therefor, granting such mine, together with the
right to follow such vein or lode with its dips, angles, and variations, to
any depth, although it may enter the land adjoining, which land adjoining
shall be sold subject to this condition.
Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That upon the filing of the diagram
as provided in the second section of this act, and posting the same in a conspicuous
place on the claim, together with a notice of intention to apply for a patent,
the register of the land office shall publish a notice of the same in a newspaper
published nearest to the location of said claim, and shall also post such
notice in his office for the period of ninety days; and after the expiration
of said period, if no adverse claim shall have been filed, it shall be the
duty of the surveyor-general, upon application of the party, to survey the
premises and make a plat thereof, indorsed with his approval, designating
the number and description of the location, the value of the labor and improvements,
and the character of the vein exposed; and upon the payment to the proper
officer of five dollars per acre, together with the cost of such survey, plat,
and notice, and giving satisfactory evidence that said diagram and notice
have been posted on the claim during said period of ninety days, the register
of the land office shall transmit to the general land office said plat, survey,
and description; and a patent shall issue for the same thereupon. But said
plat, survey, or description shall in no case cover more than one vein or
lode, and no patent shall issue for more than one vein or lode, which shall
be expressed in the patent issued.
SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That when such location and entry
of a mine shall be upon unsurveyed lands it shall and may be lawful, after
the extension thereto of the public surveys, to adjust the surveys to the
limits of the premises according to the location and possession and plat aforesaid,
and the surveyor-general may, in extending the surveys,
vary the same from a rectangular form to suit the circumstances of the country
and the local rules, laws, and customs of miners: Provided, That
no location hereafter made shall exceed two hundred feet in length along the
vein for each locator, with an additional claim for discovery to the discoveror
of the lode, with the right to follow such vein to any depth, with all its
dips, variations, and angles, together with a reasonable quantity of surface
for the convenient working of the same as fixed by local rules: And provided
further, That no person may make more than one location on the same lode,
and not more than three thousand feet shall be taken in any one claim by any
association of persons.
SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That as a further condition of
sale, and in the absence of necessary legislation by Congress, the local legislature
of any State or Territory may provide rules for working mines involving easements,
drainage, and other necessary means to their complete development; and those
conditions shall be fully expressed in the patent.
SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That whenever any adverse claimants
to any mine located and claimed as aforesaid shall appear before the approval
of the survey, as provided in the third section of this act, all proceedings
shall be stayed until a final settlement and adjudication in the courts of
competent jurisdiction of the rights of possession to such claim, when a patent
may issue as in other cases.
SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That the President of the United
States be, and is hereby, authorized to establish additional land districts
and to appoint the necessary officers under existing laws, wherever he may
deem the same necessary for the public convenience in executing the provisions
of this act.
SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That the right of way for the
construction of highways over public lands, not reserved for public uses,
is hereby granted.
SEC. 9. And be it further enacted, That whenever, by priority of
possession, rights to the use of water for mining, agricultural, manufacturing,
or other purposes, have vested and accrued, and the same are recognized and
acknowledged by the local customs, laws, and the decisions of courts, the
possessors and owners of such vested rights shall be maintained and protected
in the same; and the right of way for the construction of ditches and canals
for the purposes aforesaid is hereby acknowledged and confirmed: Provided,
however, That whenever, after the passage of this act, any person or
persons shall, in the construction of any ditch or canal, injure or damage
the possession of any settler on the public domain, the party committing such
injury or damage shall be liable to the party injured for such injury or damage.
SEC. 10. And be it further enacted, That wherever, prior to the passage
of this act, upon the lands heretofore designated as mineral lands, which
have been excluded from survey and sale, there have been homesteads made by
citizens of the United States, or persons who have declared their intention
to become citizens, which homesteads have been made, improved, and used for
agricultural purposes, and upon which there have been no valuable mines of
gold, silver, cinnabar, or copper discovered, and which are properly agricultural
lands, the said settlers or owners of such homesteads shall have a right of
pre-emption thereto, and shall be entitled to purchase the same at the price
of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, and in quantity not to exceed
one hundred and sixty-acres; or said parties may avail themselves of the provisions
of the act of Congress approved May twenty, eighteen hundred and sixty-two,
entitled "An act to secure homesteads to actual settlers on the public
domain," and acts amendatory thereof.
SEC. 11. And be it further enacted, That upon the survey of the lands
aforesaid, the Secretary of the Interior may designate and set apart such
portions of the said lands as are clearly agricultural lands, which lands,
which lands shall thereafter be subject to preemption and sale as other public
lands of the United States, and subject to all the laws and regulations applicable
to the same.
APPROVED, July 26, 1866.