Holland v. Mount Auburn Gold Quartz Mining Co.

Insufficient Location of Mining Claim:. —The posting of a notice upon a tree at each end of a mining claim is not a sufficient compliance with sec. 2324 of the Devised Statutes of the United States, which requires the location to ho “ distinctly marked on the ground so that its boundaries can he readily traced.”

Appeal from the District Court of the Fourteenth Judicial District, Nevada County. Ejectment for a quartz mining claim of fifteen hundred feet long by six hundred feet wide. The defendant had been in possession of the claim for several years, when in August, 1876, the plaintiffs attempted to relocate it, upon the assumption that the defendant had forfeited its interest in the claim by failing to do the work required by the Act of May 10, 1872, which requires work of the value of ten dollars for each one hundred feet to be done annually. The plaintiffs went upon the ground and posted the following notice upon a tree at each end of the claim: “ Notice is hereby given that we, the undersigned, have this day located and claimed fifteen hundred (1,500) feet on this quartz ledge, commencing at a white oak tree standing about fifty feet northeast of G. W. Eagon’s house, and running thence along the ledge in a southerly course for said distance, to a black oak tree which is about two feet in diameter, with top broken off, and dead on west side, and standing in an enclosure, Cleveland’s. We also locate and claim all dips, spurs, angles, and variations of said ledge for three hundred (300) feet on' each side of the ledge. The same to be known as the Como Mine. Nevada Mining District, Nevada County, California. “ Edwin Tilley, “August 25th, 1876. “J. L. Holland.” No other monuments or marks were provided by the plaintiff until after the commencement of the action, when he had the claim regularly surveyed and the boundary lines duly marked, but in the meantime the defendant had resumed work upon the claim. Judgment was rendered for the plaintiff, and the defendant appealed, a new trial having been denied.