Location Certificates, Claim Jumper Options

[Gold Hill Miner]

I have a mess. BLM did a meets and bounds survey in my area and changed my property lines after 150 years. I have been on the same claims for over 26 years. In the last year I have uncovered every original property marker according to my deeds from the 1800's. Someone intentionally obliterated all of them. Now that same person is trying to prevent me from getting any corrections with violence. BLM recorded no evidence of almost all of them in their survey in 2003. They reset markers. After a year and a half of trying to figure out what happened I realized I just had to prove my shafts and tunnels to the mines have not moved. I own 3 seperate pieces of property. On 2 of those properties I own the mineral rights and the surface rights. On one I own all the mineral rights and only some of the surface rights. If I fix the one with the partial surface rights all the rest will fall back into place. My question is, do I just need the location certificates to get BLM to make the correction. Surveyors say" BLM changed your property lines now live with it." No one will pay any attention to the mine shafts and tunnels which I do not understand. The claim jumping started around 2001. I would not have noticed but the whole area burned in the Fourmile Fire including my home and all my land. When I came home to rebuild my lines had moved. In Boulder County you can encroach on someones land for 18 years and then it is yours. The fire happened only 10 years after the encroachment started. The claim jumper figured I would never know. I still have time to fix this. Boulder County had the location certificates and everything measures correctly according to the certificates and plats according to my property description. Do I need new ones? BLM has now given the claim jumper our property without verifying the shafts, tunnels and location certificates. The claim jumper had 4 structures in trespass on one claim and moved his property lines so he would not have to purchase his trespass issues. No one at Boulder county will help and BLM wants me to file a protest against their 2003 meets and bounds survey. BLM also pinned my horseshoe pit pins almost 100' away from the real line. Help! Even lawyers want me to file quiet title actions in federal court. BLM says they have no money to fix anything and I am just getting a run around.

[Gold Hill Miner]

Thank You! I just needed to know what would work with the BLM. I need them to agree to let me fix the property lines or they can. The lines are the claims. The County does not have a clue about anything on mining claims. They are more then happy to issue permits for mining. They did say they did not care where anyone built as long as an engineer signs off on a project. Now they are letting the claim jumper build on property BLM sold to me also. I also noticed it is basically a slap on the wrist for destroying property markers on mining claims. I think it is 250.00 a marker. It is a terrible shame when these are historic and had been there over 150 years. We even found baring tree signs ripped down or trees intentionally cut. Since Location Certificates are legal and binding documents I hope BLM will do the right thing. As far as the County goes including the Sheriff they keep saying the violence from the claim jumping neighbor is a civil matter. I have verified it is definitely a criminal matter! These claims in this area were also verified 11 times over 100 years until BLM recorded no evidence of the markers in 2003. They say they went off a claim corner which worked for them. Well claim corners can move. Why wouldn't they use location certificates in the first place in such a historic mining area? We barely get phone reception up there so I also don't believe that GPS is all that acurate either. Any advise on how to present the protest with the location certificates to BLM? You don't just walk in to a bunch of good old boys and tell them they are wrong.

[swizz]

Any advise on how to present the protest with the location certificates to BLM? You don't just walk in to a bunch of good old boys and tell them they are wrong.

"Good old boys"?? Screw that... they are Federal employees that work for YOU. (pardon my French sir)
Reconstruct your Boundary Markers and Location Cert Marker exactly as per your original description on your County and BLM files. Wouldn't hurt to mark GPS coordinates.
That's that... those are your boundaries, PERIOD. If someone (BLM, County, or claim jumpers) wants to challenge that fact they can pull your files from the BLM or County records. If they want to challenge you in court then bring those public records to court and show the judge. Pretty plain and simple.
As far as the illegal structures that sprouted within your claim boundaries... destroy them or use them as evidence if you are trying to build a case. Is this a patented claim?
Regarding claim jumpers and enforcement... Mineral Trespass is a Federal matter and considered a minimal Class C Felony. Federal violations are to be handled by the respective County Sheriff's Dept. If they won't cooperate or understand that this is their responsibility I might suggest contacting the State Police for further advice. If they are not delegated to handle it, I bet they would know which department is. I wish I was nearer and I could physically help you resurrect those markers. That really gets my goat.
If this were the old west (and I often wish it were) I think that this claim jumping matter would have already been handled by whipping, exile, hangin'... or worse.