QUOTE (Clay Diggins @ Apr 8 2015, 11:49 AM)
Placer claims are generally made by aliquot part. If you can not locate by aliquot parts of the Public Land Survey System you will need to locate by metes and bounds (distance and direction).
Those are the only two legal ways to describe a claim location. You can add all the details you want, like directions or GPS coordinates, but the actual Legal Land Description is limited to just aliquot part or metes and bounds. Neither involve map projections like Lat/Lon or UTM.
All of this information is clearly explained in the 1872 Mining Act. I'm sure someone here can direct you to the relevant mining laws.
Thanks Clay. I can use the PLSS. But on the 2 neighboring claims, they also have an attached detailed map with UTM coordinates for the claim corners.