Another MinerDiggins Adventure
What follows is a text version of the 1870 Mining Act
This is the Act as it was passed in 1870
AN ACT
To amend "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 act granting the right of way to ditch and canal owners over the public lands and for other purposes, approved July twenty-six, eighteen hundred and sixty-six, be, and the same is hereby, amended by adding thereto the following additional sections, numbered twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, and seventeen respectively. which shall hereafter constitute and form a part of the aforesaid act.
SEC. 12 And be it further enacted, That claims usually called "placers," including all forms of deposit. excepting veins of quartz, or other rock in place, shall be subject to entry and patent under this act, under like circumstances and conditions, and upon similar proceedings, as are provided for vein or lode claims: Provided, That where the lands have been previously surveyed by the United States, the entry in it's exterior limits shall conform to the legal subdivisions of the public lands, no further survey or plat in such case being required, and the lands may be paid for at the rate of two dollars and fifty cents per acre: Provided further, That legal subdivisions of forty acres may be subdivided into ten-acre tracts; and that two or more persons, or associations of persons, having contiguous claims, may make joint entry thereof: And provided further, That no location of a placer claim hereafter made shall exceed one hundred and sixty acres for anyone person, or association of persons; and nothing in this section contained shall defeat or impair any bona fide pre-emption or homestead claim, or authorize the sale of the improvements of any bona fide settler to any purchaser.
SEC. 13. And be it further enacted, That where said person or association, they and their grantors, shall have held and worked their said claims for a period equal to the time prescribed by tho statute of limitations for mining claims of the State or Territory where the same may be situated, evidence of such possession and working of the claim for such, period shall be sufficient to establish a right to a patent thereto under this act, in the absence of any adverse claim: Provided, however, That nothing in this act shall be deemed to impair any lien which may have attached in any way whatever to any mining claim or property thereto attached prior to the issuance of a patent.
SEC. 14. And be it further enacted, That all affidavits required to be made under this act, or the act of which it is amendatory, may be verified before any officer authorized to administer oaths within the land district where the claims may he situated, and all testimony and proofs may be taken before any such officer, and when duly certified by the officer taking the same, shall have the same force and effect as if taken before the register and receiver of the laud office: Provided, That in all cases of contest such testimony and proofs shall only be taken on at least ten days' personal notice to the opposing parties, when such parties can be found: and if they cannot be found, then by at least forty days' publication in a newspaper published nearest to the location of said claims and the register of the land office shall require proof that such notice has been given.
SEC. 15. And be it further enacted, That registers and receivers shall receive the same fees for services under this act as are provided by law for like services under other acts of Congress; and that effect shall be given to the foregoing act according to such regulations as may be prescribed by the Commissioner of the General Land Office.
SEC. 16. And be it further enacted, That so much of the act of March third, eighteen hundred and fifty-three, entitled "An act to provide for the survey of the public lands in California, the granting of pre-emption rights, and for other purposes," as provides that none other than township lines shall be surveyed where the lauds are mineral, is hereby repealed, and the public surveys are hereby extended over all such lands: Provided, That all subdividing of surveyed lands into lots less than one hundred and sixty acres may be done by county and local surveyors at the expense of the claimants.
SEC. 17. And be further enacted, That none of the rights conferred by sections five, eight, and nine of the act to which this act is amendatory, shall be abrogated by this act, and the same are hereby extended to all public lands affected by this act; and all patents granted or pre-emption or homesteads allowed, shall be subject to any vested and accrued water rights, or rights to ditches and reservoirs used in connection with such water rights as may have been acquired under or recognized by the ninth section of the act of which this act is amendatory.
Passed the House of Representatives March 17, 1870.
Attest: EDWARD McPHERSON, Clerk.