I just want to state that the LR 2000 system is a massive pain in the butt. Can anyone direct me to a current map with all active claims on it?

No such map exists.
If it did exist.... it would have to be updated every day.

After much toiling, I've managed to get the loads of information i was looking for. I was hoping for a spreadsheet of all current and past claim statuses. After only plotting a few townships and receiving 200+ pages of data, I can see how and why the system limits information and why they have it set up the way that they do. After seeing the massive scale that is involved i have a new appreciation for the LR 2000.

Mornin Swizz! I am convinced that if they set it up correctly it can auto update plots with a nightly update.For now though, I am very content with the current system. It just took me 8 hours of trial and error and breaking out a actual BLM map.

You realize you're referring to the USGOV when you say "if they", right?
They included mining claim information on geocommunicator for a while until they realized that the information was terribly inaccurate and causing legal problems for those in the field.
Instead of fixing it and making something more accurate with a "nightly update" or something of that nature.... they completely removed the feature.
A system like that would be very difficult/expensive to maintain. They wouldn't make a dime off of it either... it won't happen.
Learn the proper way to research land status and you don't need it anyway. Boots-on-the-ground land status research has been the proven method since the 1800s! The old timey miners used it.... and so do we today. It's the law of the land.
All of the information you want resides in physical public records at the County Clerk/Recorder and BLM Lakewood Public Records room. Visiting these offices and Physically reviewing/photocopying actual active and closed mining files is exactly what you should be focused on learning to do if you really want to know where active claim boundaries are. Some County offices will allow internet access to these files for a nominal fee... most aren't set up for that and require a visit. In the CP Protected Forum, Dan has compiled a short-list of which County offices offer online access and what they charge for it.
There is no online one-stop map to view this information.

LOL.... good Lord, you're as early a riser as I am, poor girl. I raise my cup to you for a coffee toast!

Well, I should say evening on my part! I woke up at 3:30 pm and have been up all night. I grew accustomed to working the graveyard shift for the past ten years. My sleep clock will.reset to summer hours in the spring and I crave outdoor adventures in the sun! So during the winter I'm up all night with the silently falling snow (which is gorgeous at 3 a.m. BTW) Not to forget to mention NO CARS! There really is nothing like looking across a beautiful white field covered in snow. The white glitter bathed in a full moon's light .

Ironically, I have to drive to Golden this morning to measure and bid on a project in some gated community.
If I land it... I'll be commuting down there until it's done (from Winter Park). But ya, I'm usually up and running at 4 or 5am, I'm just wired that way.

That is one nasty commute! I certainly hope the job is worth the wear and tear on your truck! You aren't taking Floyd hill every day are you?!?!?

Berthoud Pass and I could do Floyd Hill or Clear Crk Canyon. I definitely will be adding drive time and fuel costs to my bid, they know that. If the price is right I go anywhere. I have work as far away as Elizabeth, CO. The Golden commute is a breeze compared to that one. A little rough on the Jeep I guess but I (try to) drive mellow and it does well in the mtns, pretty well suited for that drive.

Oof, I only know that my poor Dodge gets 10.2 to the gal and EVERYTHING ids expensive to replace. Just add the words "Hemi" to it and the price jumps. Lil jeeps are pretty durable.
Ick, Elizabeth is quite a haul! I used to live in Castle Rock, so I can feel the pain"

fenixmom,

Just keep pluggin' away at the LR2000 system. It will get easier to use as you spend more time with it. You will learn the limitations and the potential of the system's data. Even with all the limitations, it is soooooooo much better that nothing at all. The county records in some of the remote areas of Colorado are not even close to the detail LR2000 provides.

If you have problems or questions, the folks on this this forum can help you.

ASTROBLEME

Ya'll are so optimistic about LR2000. When I can get it to run, it's nice. 98% of the time I can't get past the "server not found" message.

Dan had some suggestions in the thread in the protected section of the forum for club members. Have you seen that yet Carl?

Other than throwing the computer out the window...?
I'll check it out.

Hey Carl, saw your post in the other thread. Glad you've gotten the problem pinned down to your ISP servers settings. Now you don't have to keep wondering if it's something else that keeps going wrong trying to access the LR2000 system.

Indeed. Truly a rare event that a commercial enterprise is at fault and NOT the goobermint.

So does this program need to be purchased? Or is it a free download? Or is it just a website - I'd like to start to get familiar with it (if at all possible) - Kinda at a loss.

Colin

Ok - I think I found the website - still not a lot of info about the actual program tho - I have all the crap to access it.... hmmmm

No, it's a free took provided by the blm. There is a tutorial off to the left on how to use it. MikeS knows how to walk through it if you have any questions. I would happily answer, but I haven't a computer to stick in front of me.

You will also need blm topo maps to get the township info. I believe we are in the Ute meridian.

Live demo with Q&A on Tuesday up in Westminster if ya can make it. PM me if you can make it and I'll send you my address.

You are too cool Eric, Mike and Jessie!! Great idea for others to see and learn it hands on.
Love seeing the power of a team working together and making things happen!! Good job!

I'm a little nervous with the weather, but looking at precip tomorrow, it should drop off after noon or so. I'll make sure the house is toasty. I hope at least the local folks can make it!

I can't find a ride... next time if there is such a thing, fosho.

Would've loved to attend.

Colin

PS - Got directions... holy hell yer up there.

Thanks D! I'm just the messenger. But yay for teamwork WOO!

I am up here a bit. Rumor has it we'll have one more experienced dude up here along with Mike. Multiple perspectives sounds like a good thing to me!

It was a great night in my opinion! Many thanks to MikeS, Fenix and Woody for the education! LR2000 was down last night, so we couldn't run reports, but Jess had hard copy reports so we made do with what we had. We had Woody live and direct from down south via phone; it worked well, but a phone with a louder speaker would be better. Moving to paper without a way to display for Woody meant he couldn't really participate there though.

Thanks again to everyone for taking time out of your days to help out! What a great group! This helps significantly giving some confidence with the system!

I got work to do!

Last night was awesome! Many thanks to Eric for being such a gracious host! Thank you woody for taking the time out of your evening to teach us how to use geocommunicator in tandem with the LR2000! Many many thanks! Lastly, but never least; Mike, your knowledge of everything prospecting is astounding! Thank you for sharing and answering all our questions. I apologize I was distracted, but I was very much present in the discussions. I missed the conversation about actually staking claims. But now I can bother Eric with questions if you're unavailable.

Thank you three gentleman for one of the best nights I've had in too long!

Wish I'd known Woody was attending - would've asked him to pick me up along the way, oh well.

Colin - We'd have needed a conference line then my friend...ahem...sorry...bastard. Woody phoned in from the Springs.

Woody attended via phone. He couldn't make it up here last night.

O.

Thanks for having us over Emac. I learned something about LR2000.... Don't expect to run a report on a gov. holiday.
It was great to see everyone and was great to talk more about how to use that info when following up your research.

Are you guys to do another one of those LR2000 lessons? If so I just may try to get in via phone.

If anyone else ever needs help with LR 2000 I would be happy to do a show and tell. Right now I have been living on LR 2000.

-Chris

I'll have to take you up on that, lost.

Just PM me and I would be happy to help. I am also getting pretty good in Geocommunicator.

-Chris

Cool very nice of you to offer to help folks also Chris.

I'd like to make sure that the Geocom mapping isn't taken for "accurate" information though. Accuracy of the LR2000 database is just as good for the mapping accuracy, only you have to mark the mile sections or partial sections (1-36) according to the text (claimants) files. The geocom map overlay does nothing more than "guess" on placement. The farthest the accuracy could possibly carry is only to the sectional info (same as the LR2000 text data), and often not accurate at that level (multiple section claims)....actual placement must never be used from geocom to find ground! You'll need to find that information from the actual claim files at either location and don't forget about the 90 day timeline that isn't ever on digital data.

Keep diggin' in folks, you're all doing well!

Definitely right there Dan. I have spent many hours at the BLM offices and the County offices verifying exactly where open ground is just to get out in the field and find out that I am off about 200 yards and yes of course I respect the claim and move on. One big issue that I have found with geocom is that it doesnt handle quarter sections well at all. In fact actual mapping and on the ground with a gps mapping varies greatly with geocom. Just my two cents or 1.5 cents depending on the day.

-Chris

I'm not sure why but my knowledge seems to be unwanted here. Besides being a full time mining professional and spending a good part of my life advocating miner's right I have also used my legal education to teach mining law for many years for free.

I'll make one more effort to share some of my knowledge here. Besides running a mining non-profit and making some interim software for small miners I have to pay the bills like everyone else. I earn the money for those bills by doing extensive land status research and forming location notices for the largest mining companies in the world.

Here is what I have learned when researching and mapping claims in the United States public lands. Take it for what it is worth to you.

The process we use professionally is to:

1. Determine what the Legal Land Description (LLD) is. The LLD consists of the Meridian, Township, Range, Section, Quarter Section and aliquot part of the location. You can determine that description from the Public Land Survey System (PLSS). The PLSS is the Legal Land Description by which mining claims are made by. That's the law and has been since 1789 - no matter what parcel# the tax assessors office call it. You can determine the PLSS of your location by using the Land Status Map and turning on the PLSS layer and zooming in to your area of interest.

2. Take that LLD and look up the land status on the Master Title Plat map for the Township your claim is in. You should also download the supplements and the Historical Index and cross refrence with the Land Orders listed for that area. This will tell you if the land is claimable or closed to claims. All restrictions will be noted on the Master Title Plat and it's supplements. You can download a free copy of that Master Title Plat, supplements and Historical Index at the Government Land Office website.

If the land you are interested comes up as locatable on the Master Title Plat go to number 3 below. If not you will not be able to make the claim. Just because somebody claimed land before doesn't mean it was claimable. The BLM is well known for accepting claim files and money on claims they will eventually challenge and close.

3. Look up the LLD on the BLM LR2000 database website. Be sure to include adjacent sections. Often the BLM will choose to put cross sectional claims in their smallest fraction. This will tell you the current file status for all the claims in the LLD. If a new claim is filed with the BLM it could take anywhere from a week to more than a year before it will show up there. Even so it's a free stop and the information you get on the area claims will help you at the next step.

Just because the BLM shows or doesn't show an open (or closed) claim where you are looking you still don't know the whole story until you do the next three steps.

4. Check for Mining Claim Location Notices for that LLD at the County Recorders office. If you got a list of the closed claims, with their location date, you can eliminate those claims from your final list - much cheaper.

Most Counties have an online search feature so you can look that up yourself at home. Find the Mining Location Notices, Location Amendments and annual filings for the closed claim and all the claims nearby. You will need the grantors names and the Book and Page each is recorded on.

Mining Claim Location Notice and Legal Land Description are how County Recorder's deal with Mining Claims. They don't keep a map of claims. They do not do searches for location notices without knowing the Grantor name, or the Grantee, or the LLD or the Book and Page. Most Counties charge for record searches that don't have at least two of the above classifications. The County Recorder can help you a lot, treat them well and it can be easy.

Once you have a list of the Book and Page Numbers for the above recordings contact the County Recorder (mail, phone, email, walk in doesn't matter) and order copies of all the pages of each Recording on your list. There will be a charge for this but by having the Names and Book and Page Numbers you only have to pay for the copies - not thousands of dollars in research fees. You do not need the copies certified.

5. Take the information from the claims records you got that are currently active and draw out each claim on a topo map. There should be a map with each claim location notice. Once you have all the active claims on the map look and see if the area you are interested in is still open (no other claims there). Don't try to "fix" the claim locations if they overlap - that happens and it's one of the things you are looking for on your map. It's entirely possible the claim that was dropped there was an overclaim and there really isn't anything open.

6. If everything looks clear once you've done the above steps it's time to put the boots on the ground. Take your map with you and look around the claim area and see if there are any recent monuments or stakes. LOOK for a new claim there. If there is none you can then prospect and see if the land is mineral in character. If it's all good go ahead and put up a monument stake with your location notice and map and mark the claim boundaries.

How you stake and how you describe the claim (aliquot part or metes and bounds) will be determined by what you learned about the area of land you are claiming. In most cases a simple LLD is all you will need as a description. Sometimes you will need to use metes and bounds (distance and direction). You won't know that until you have made your map and checked the location on the ground.

Then you can proceed to record your location at the county and make your FLPMA informational filing with the State BLM office.

At that point you might have a valid claim. Everyone who locates a claim has 30 - 90 days (depending on the State) to make a public Mining Claim Location Notice at the County Recorder and 90 days to give an informational notice, pay fees and obtain a claim number from the BLM. In other words somebody else might already have made a claim there before you but they just haven't made their recording/filing yet. It's all about who puts up the first monument, not when you record or file the location.

Doing these things out of order can waste a lot of time and when it comes to staking, recording or filing your claims it could invalidate them. I've put several links in here to help you along. (Links have been removed to avoid any offense)

I map thousands of existing claims this way each year. The claims I make for mining companies have been challenged and they have survived every challenge without amendment. You may have a different method. As long as you have truly done your due diligence you should be able to proceed with confidence.

Heavy Pans

Barry

Wow! That is valuable information ON CRACK! Thank you Barry!!!!!

Thanks, Barry! I will be using this info. Glad you are here, and sorry that it seems that no one is interested - we are! Please continue sharing, and welcome to the club.

Caveman, this person is not a club member and has never even inquired about becoming one. What he is interested in is selling magic maps that are suppose to have all claims marked (from geocom) on them.
Recently Clay diggings privately emailed me to ask about posting his products around here......After sending links to those products to 3 different club members, the 5 of us all came to the same conclusions, the products accuracy will not be as stated.
So he was very politely told "no thanks" in private but still invited to participate otherwise here.

A couple days ago....in this thread for LR2000 discussion, he pops in late at night and posts up a link to his products. I deleted the post.

Now he's back with a smart ass attitude which won't help win my respect and this will be his final warning. Interact normally if you'd like Clay diggings, but post up one more link to your products or pop off with an attitude toward this community or board and you're out!! I'll ban ya' immediately!

We showed you plenty of respect and was polite about it, either do the same or click on!

I stand corrected....

Oh Snapple! Ditto caveman.

Can anyone verify if the information above is valid?

I think you must have me confused with someone else. I did send one private introductory PM to Dan. I did not offer anything for sale. I did inquire whether it would be proper to post links to our non profit website for miners. There is nothing for sale there whatsoever. There are no fees or requirements to use the site. It is simply a popular free resource for miners and land users.

I have never emailed or PM any other person here - ever. I have nothing to sell to anyone in Colorado nor have I ever attempted to sell to anyone on this forum or anywhere else in Colorado. I have no intention of ever doing any business in Colorado.

You have an absolute right to run your forum as you wish. I tried to respect that by contacting you before posting. You made it clear that I should not post a link or make reference to the non-profit website. I have not and will not do so.

Ban if you wish. It is your website and I would not question your right to do so for any reason you wish. Remove my post if you wish. What I have posted is offered freely.

I will leave now and allow you to make your decisions in private. I do have experience and knowledge to offer but I have no wish to impose my knowledge on anyone. Do as you will, I will not object here or anywhere else. This post was just an effort to clear up an obvious misunderstanding.

Heavy Pans

Your "easy list" posted above is as inaccurate and misleading as the "non-profit" sites you are trying to push here. I think you have this club confused with something else. We are trying to teach people to do it right! I will not support those sites or your list to club members here.

He is involved with two mapping products, as CP mentioned one of them is marketed as having location data on claims, land ownership, water flow, etc. Guess they're pretty busy updating that every day all day long so it's always correct, right? Probably not, and at roughly $80 per area a waste of money. None of the locations are in Colorado, so not sure why he approached CP with that one to begin with.

The other product is free, offering land status, land survey, topo maps,etc. Bottom line up front, their land status tool fails to properly identify known private land surrounded by public land. That failure alone was enough to discredit the entire website in my opinion.

The information he provided earlier is great, so great in fact that it's already available in one form or another all through the forums. Obviously he would not realize that some of it is in the members only area, which should serve as a reminder to everyone that annual and lifetime members are the only forum users allowed in the members area. Simply creating a user name for the forums does not grant you access to the restricted section. The easiest ways to determine club membership status is to either ask them to post something in the members area, or ask CP/Mrs CP directly. Don't assume everyone is a member. That's not directed at anyone, it simply has come up in past discussions and this was a perfect opportunity to reinforce that idea.

Mike speaks, I listen. Smart cookie! Well Dan and caveman too, but I've had the pleasure of field testing Mike :D no innuendo implied. But is his info about LLD informational post accurate?

Thank you "the grouch"!