Claim Jumpers, Altering Patented Mining Claim Boundaries Options

[Gold Hill Miner]

I have thwarted a claim jumper and an adverse possession. I am in possession of 6 survey plats showing the accurate location of my claim and 1 inaccurate setback line by an inexperienced surveyor and an incorrect Cadastral Survey/ meets and bounds survey from the BLM. I have been able to prove my claim jumper has rotated his claim 75' disrupting several mountain communities and 10 immediate adjoining parcels. I found what I needed buried in BLM case files that were missing listed documents/photos and also hidden in inaccurate case files. I am the 4th land owner since 2010 to have my claim locations fixed in my area. 4 other immediate land owners are next since I have completed my investigation. I am filing a lawsuit against this claim jumper. I have contacted the local authorities and I have contacted the BLM. I thought this was the BLM's fault. It was not.

What I am struggling with, is protection from the crazed claim jumper. I have also found there have been many land disputes over the mining claims in my area because of this ripple effect. The claim jumper claim is at the top of our mountain section. This has rippled into multiple mountain areas because the claim jumper altered his claim lines to encompass trespass issues on government land. The BLM, the County and the sheriffs department are not showing any accountability with this. All of us in the immediate area are filing the BLM letter to the claim jumper (ordering removal of trespass issue) and a recent survey showing the movement of many claims in our area by BLM to be inaccurate with the county planning department and with our deeds.

Who will finally arrest the claim jumper. His lawyer sent a letter wanting to settle out of court. Since I received the letter, the claim jumper has become more aggressive, destroys marked boundary lines and threatens my family continuously. Who will let the rest of our adjoining mountain communities know about this. I do have a TPO and will hopefully get a permanent one soon. My lawyer will be filing our lawsuit in July to recoup some of the damages caused by the claim jumper. I followed advise from a previous thread, took my land back, posted no trespassing signs and called the sheriff. Any of the remaining property in trespass on my land is mine now. How do I get this guy removed off the mountain. I can not believe the lack of accountability with the BLM, the County and the Division of Mine Reclamation. The Forest Service did help help me in 2011 and 2012 with survey equipment and we found every original stone corner monument for three of my parcels. No metal monuments unless they were thrown in mine shafts. We could see them. The forest service also proved all my GPS coordinates were a match to our county coordinates at the time. I have wasted a lot of time and money proving the same thing over and over again. No one wants to deal with this guy. I am afraid the claim jumper will cause serious damage with his bulldozer as he has in the past. Anyone remember Heemeyer in Granby or Kremmling?
On a good note, I have found my first gold flakes. At the rate I'm going it might be 10-20 years before I have an ounce. I am finding silver and gold in specific stones that have what I believe could be fluoride? It looks dark red and seems lucid or almost crystal like?

[Gene Kooper]

GHM,

I'm going to say something, BUT do NOT take it as legal advice. Land surveyors apply the law; attorneys interpret the law. I am not aware of any unpatented lode or placer claims that you may hold in the Gold Hill area. I am aware that you do have title to two or more patented lode mining claims. When you talk to the sheriff, do not tell him that your neighbor is claim jumping. That implies that the claims are unpatented and they usually will avoid getting involved without a court order. The reasoning being that they are not adjudicators of possessory mineral rights of private parties

Tell the sheriff that your neighbor is trespassing on your private property. You do have one or more plats of your property prepared by other surveyor(s) so you can show the sheriff's deputy where your property is located and, from your prior posts the disturbances by your neighbor on your private land. It would be best to try and get them to come up when he is on your property. Without your permission, his being on your property is criminal trespass and therefore, subject to criminal sanctions. That is why I mentioned in an earlier post that you should consider documenting any trespass with photos. Assuming you have a digital camera, have the date and time stamp feature turned on to better document when the trespass(es) occur.

As for the destruction of monuments, you should have a plat prepared by your surveyor that certifies what monuments they found. If the surveyor used the monument as control for their survey they are also required to file a monument record that includes at least two accessories. The accessories can be used to reestablish the mineral survey corner should it be destroyed by your neighbor's criminal behavior. The statute that I cited in a prior post to this thread concerning the willful destruction of a survey monument is a misdemeanor and carries criminal penalties. I suggest you talk to your attorney and with his/her help file a complaint with the county or district attorney.

It sounds very fishy that the neighbor's attorney wants to negotiate an agreement; probably because they know your neighbor has screwed up, so to speak.

As for the patents at the BLM Public Room, they are on aperture cards and the cost is $1.10 per page. The GLO Records web site has scanned copies of patents issued after 1909. Before that date, you can often get a patent by looking at the Control Document Index. Not all early patents are there, but the great majority of them are. Feel free to email me with your claim names and mineral survey numbers and I'll help you look for those online.

Finally, the period of time that you note is from June 20, 1899 through Aug. 8, 1904. There was a small time buffer to get everyone notified of the changes. I can discuss more about your claims via email. Now the "patent package" that is officially referred to as the Land Entry Case File is obtained from the National Archives in Washington D.C. For mineral surveys, the mining claimant/patent applicant compiles all of the information and records for their claim (e.g. newspaper notices) that are required to be submitted before the Land Office will issue the patent. The patent applicant submits the patent application to the local land office. As you found out, that information includes a lot more than what is in the patent.

Also, if you get bored or cold up on Gold Hill this next February and desire to [literally] play roulette, I will be giving an 8-hour workshop at the Luxor in Las Vegas on February 22. My talk is on Advanced Topics in Mineral Surveys and will go into the details of that 5-year period from 1899 to 1904. The talk is part of a conference sponsored by the National Society of Professional Surveyors, the Western Federation of Professional Surveyors, the Arizona Professional Land Surveyors, the Nevada Association of Land Surveyors, and the Utah Council of Land Surveyors. It is a warm up to a talk I am planning to give in Denver in March sponsored by the BLM for Federal surveyors and Certified Federal Surveyors.