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.

[CP]

I still think you need to dig up the original survey notes from the original claim work as I posted previously. A third survey at this point will only further complicate the situation if it's not done to re-establish the original markers/pins.
You don't need permission from BLM to survey either......it's your money that hires a surveyor and law requires all surveys done by licensed surveyors to be entered into the BLM database....not just the ones BLM says okey dokey too. They (BLM) do review the surveys for completeness before acceptance but all surveys are entered into the database.

Yes you should definately get another surveyor (maybe different county) and maybe not mention the location certs to them......might be too confusing to a surveryor in todays world. You need a survey of the old original survey, personally I would dig up those records at BLM myself and attempt to re-track the field notes to the old markers/pins on the ground first. Then possibly hire the surveyors to re-establish those original markers/boundries in the field.
Of course taking digital photo records of all markers (new and old) found to show the different placements you've described. Take a gps along with you as well and record your own cords.

Your patented claims (lodes) are a specific size and shape by law which was of course orientated along the dyke or ore body involved......ie inclination or declination and direction of the mineral deposit dictated where the lode claim was laid out.
The dig site (tunnel) would have been centered in the claim.
They sure didn't move the tunnel or the ore body so it should be obvious in the field if they moved your boundries as now this tunnel site would not be centered on the claim as it's supposed to be......and BLM should know that!!

Sounds like the run around to me still......I'd read up on that RICO act too.......BLM should not be abusing the office to intimidate property owners into giving up thier property!

Whew 5-8k.......WOWSER!!
They sure aren't getting any cheaper on the surveys are they?