WYOMING

TITLE 18, DIVISION 1, REVISED STATUTES

Organization of Mining District

SECTION 2533. In any mining district or in mining field of discovery of veins, leads, lodes or ledges, or of gold placers, petroleum fields, soluble salt deposits, or of any mineral lands whatever, or of any lands that are, or may be hereafter, opened to location under the laws governing mineral deposits, the miners may meet and organize and elect a recorder and make regulations not in conflict with the laws of the United States, or with the laws of this State governing the location, manner of recording and amount of annual work necessary to hold possession of a mining claim within the district, subject to the following requirements:

1. That any five miners having locations, or owning in part or in whole claims within the proposed district, shall give notice by at least three written or printed or partially written and partially printed notices, posted in prominent places within the proposed district, of a meeting called by them for organizing such district at a date at least ten days subsequent to the posting of such notices.

2. That the meeting thus called shall be attended by at least ten persons, all having locations or owning, in part or in whole, claims within the proposed district.

3. That the recorder elected for such an organized district shall hold his office until his successor is elected and qualified according to law. Such recorder is required to give bonds, with at least two sureties, to the people of Wyoming, in the penal sum of not less than one thousand dollars, for the faithful performance of his duties, and for the turning over of all books, papers, records, etc., of his office to his duly elected and qualified successor, which bond shall be approved by the judge of the district court and filed in the office of the county clerk and ex-officio register of deeds. The recorder of such a mining district may appoint a deputy for whose official acts he shall be responsible.

4. That no district need be organized if the majority at the meeting as herein before provided so desire, but when a district is once organized it cannot be subdivided except in accordance with the local laws of the district, enacted at the regular or special meetings, or by action of the legislature of this State. In case of the abandonment of any district for any cause whatever it shall be the duty of the district recorder, as soon as practicable thereafter, to deposit all records and other papers, pertaining to his office, in the office of the county clerk and ex-officio register of deeds of the county in which such district is located.

5. Each mining district may regulate the fees to be charged by the local recorder for recording location certificates, affidavits of labor and all other instruments to be filed in the said recorder's office.

Copy of Laws and Proceedings to be Filed

SEC. 2534. A copy of all laws, and the proceedings of each mining district, shall be filed by the recorder of the district in the office of the county clerk and ex-officio register of deeds of the county in which the district is

situated, which shall be taken as evidence in any court having jurisdiction in the matter concerned under such laws or proceedings; and all such laws and proceedings of any mining district heretofore filed in the county clerk's office of the proper county, and transcripts thereof duly certified, shall have the like effect in evidence. Such copies of laws and proceedings shall be filed in the office of the said county clerk and ex-officio register of deeds by the recorder of each mining district within sixty days after the organization of each new mining district, or within sixty days after new laws were adopted or proceedings had.

Use of Water

SEC. 2535. Whenever any person, persons or corporation shall be engaged in mining or milling in this State, and in the prosecution of such business shall hoist or bring water from mines or natural water courses, such person, persons or corporation shall have the right to use such water in such manner and direct it into such natural course or gulch as their business interests may require; provided, that such diversion shall not infringe on vested rights. The provisions of this section shall not be construed to apply to new or undeveloped mines, but to those only which shall have been open and require drainage or other direction of water.

Mining Claims Subject to Right of Way

SEC. 2536. All mining claims or property now located, or which may hereafter be located within this State, shall be subject to the right of way of any ditch or flume, for mining purposes, or of any tramway, pack-trail or wagon road, whether now in use, or which may hereafter be laid out across any such location, claim or property; provided, always, that such right of way shall not be exercised against any mining location, claim or property duly made and recorded as herein required, and not abandoned prior to the establishment of any such ditch, flume, tramway, pack-trail or wagon road without the consent of the owner or owners, except in condemnation, as in the case of land taken for public highways. Consent to the location of the easements above enumerated over any mineral claim, location or property shall be in writing; and provided, further, that any such ditch or flume shall be so constructed that water therefrom shall not injure vested rights by flooding or otherwise.

Protection of Surface Proprietors

SEC. 2537. Where a mining right exists in any case and is separate from the ownership or right of occupancy to the surface, such owner or rightful occupant of the said surface may demand satisfactory security from the miner or miners, and, if such security is refused, such owner or occupant of the surface may enjoin the miner or miners from working such mine until such security is given. The order for such injunction shall fix the amount of the bond therefor.

Relocation Certificates

SEC. 2538. Whenever it shall be apprehended by the locator, or his assigns, of any mining claims or property heretofore or hereafter located, that his or their original location certificate was defective, erroneous, or that

the requirements of the law had not been complied with before the filing thereof, or shall be desirous of changing the surface boundaries of his or their original claim or location, or of taking in any part of an overlapping claim or location which has been abandoned, or in case the original certificate was made prior to March 6, 1888, and he or they shall be desirous of securing the benefit of this law, such locator or locators, or his or their assigns, may file an additional location certificate in compliance with and subject to the provisions of this chapter: Provided, however, that such relocation shall not infringe upon the rights of others existing at the time of such relocation, and that no such relocation, or other record thereof, shall preclude the claimant or claimants from proving any such title or titles as he or they may have held under any previous location.

Location Certificates Shall Describe but One Claim

SEC. 2539. No location certificate shall contain more than one claim or location, whether the location be made by one or more locators, and any location certificate that contains upon its face more than one location claim shall be absolutely void, except as to the first location named and described therein, and in case more than one claim or location is described together, so that the first one cannot be distinguished from the others, the certificate of location shall be void as an entirety.

SEC. 2540. In all cases when two or more persons shall, through collusion or otherwise, associate themselves together for the purpose of obtaining possession of any lode, gulch or placer or other mineral claim or mining property within this State, then in the actual possession of another or others, by force and violence, or threats of violence, or by stealth, and shall proceed to carry out such purpose by making threats to and against the party or parties in possession, or who shall enter upon such lode, gulch, placer, or other mineral claim or mining property for the purposes aforesaid, or who shall enter upon or into mineral claim or mining property; or, not being on such mining claim or mineral property, but within hearing of the same, shall make any threats or any use of any language, signs, gestures, intended to intimadate any person or persons in possession or at work on the said claim or claims of mineral property, of whatever kind or nature, from continuing such possession or work thereon or therein, or to intimidate others from engaging to be employed thereon or therein, every such person or persons so engaging shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof, shall be fined in a penal sum not exceeding two hundred and fifty dollars, and be imprisoned in the county jail for not less than thirty days nor more than six months. On trial of any person or persons charged with any of the offenses enumerated in this section, the proof of a common purpose of two or more persons to unlawfully secure possession of any mining claim or mineral property within the State, or to intimidate any one in the possession of, or laborers at work on, any mining claim or mineral property aforesaid, accompanied or followed by any acts or utterances of such person or persons as herein enumerated, shall be sufficient evidence to convict any one committing such acts, although such

parties may not be associated or acting together at the time of the commission of such offenses.

Destroying Mining Property - Penalty

SEC. 2541. Any person or persons who shall unlawfully cut down, break down, level, demolish, destroy, injure, remove or carry away any sign, notice, post, mark, monument or fence upon or around any shaft, pit, hole, incline or tunnel, or any building, structure, machinery, implements or other property on any mining claim or mineral property, ground or premises, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof, shall be fined a penal sum of money not less than fifty dollars nor more than one thousand dollars, or be imprisoned for not less than thirty days nor more than one year, or both, in the discretion of the court.

SEC. 2542. Any person or persons who shall defraud, cheat, swindle or deceive any party or parties, in relation to any mine or mining property, by "salting," or placing or causing to be placed in any lode, placer or other mine any genuine metals or material representing genuine minerals, which are designed to cheat and deceive others, for the purpose of gain, whereby others shall be deceived and injured by such, shall be guilty of a felony, and upon conviction thereof shall be fined in a penal sum of not less than fifty dollars and not more than five thousand dollars, or imprisoned in the penitentiary for not more than three years, or both, in the discretion of the court. Protection of Live Stock From Mining Shafts - Penalty for Failure to Protect

SEC. 2543. Every person, persons, company or corporation, who have already sunk mining shafts, pits, holes, inclines, upon any mining claim, or upon any mineral property, ground or premises, or who may hereafter sink such openings aforesaid, shall forthwith secure such shafts and openings against the injury or destruction of live stock running at large upon the public domain, by securely covering such shafts and other openings, as aforesaid, in a manner to render them safe against the possibility of live stock falling into them, or in any manner becoming injured or destroyed thereby; or by forthwith making a strong, secure and ample fence around such shafts and other openings aforesaid. Any person, persons, corporation or company that shall fail or refuse to fully comply with the provisions of this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof shall be liable for any damages sustained by injury or loss of live stock thereby.

Length of Lode Claim

SEC. 2544. The length of any lode mining claim located within Wyoming, shall not exceed fifteen hundred feet, measured horizontally along such lode or vein. Nor can the regulations of any mining district limit a locator to less than this length.

Width of Lode Claim

SEC. 2545. The width of any lode claim located within Wyoming shall not exceed three hundred feet on each side of the discovery shaft, the dis

covery shaft being always equally distant from the side lines of the claims. Nor can any mining district limit the locator to a width of less than one hundred and fifty feet on either side of the discovery shaft.

Recording Mining Claims - Requisites of Certificate

SEC. 2546. A discoverer of any mineral lead, lode, ledge or vein shall, within sixty days from the date of discovery, cause such claim to be recorded in the office of the county clerk and ex-officio register of deeds of the county within which such claim may exist, by a location certificate which shall contain the following facts:

1. The name of the lode claim.

2. The name or names of the locator or locators.

3. The date of location.

4. The length of the claim along the vein measured each way from the center of the discovery shaft, and the general course of the vein as far as it is known.

5. The amount of surface ground claimed on either side of the center of the discovery shaft or discovery workings.

6. A description of the claim by such designation of natural or fixed object, or, if upon ground surveyed by the United States system of land survey, by reference to section or quarter-section corners, as shall identify the claim beyond question.

Imperfect Certificates - Void

SEC. 2547. Any certificate of the location of a lode claim which shall not fully contain all the requirements named in the preceding section, together with such other description as shall identify the lode claim with reasonable certainty, shall be void.

Prerequisites to Filing Location Certificate

SEC. 2548. Before the filing of a location certificate in the office of the county clerk and ex-officio register of deeds, the discoverer of any lode, vein or fissure shall designate the location thereof as follows:

1. By sinking a shaft upon the discovery lode or fissure to the depth of ten feet from the lowest part of the rim of such shaft at the surface.

2. By posting at the point of discovery, on the surface, a plain sign or notice containing the name of the lode or claim, the name of the discoverer and locator, and the date of such discovery.

3. By marking the surface boundaries of the claim, which shall be marked by six substantial monuments of stone or posts, hewed or marked on the side or sides, which face is toward the claim, and sunk in the ground one at each side corner and one at the center of each side line, and when thus marking the boundaries of a claim, if any one or more of such posts or monuments of stone shall fall, by necessity, upon precipitous ground, when proper placing of it is impracticable or dangerous to life or limb, it shall be lawful to place any such post or monument of stone at the nearest point properly marked to designate its right place: Provided, That no right to such lode or claim or its possession or enjoyment shall be given to any person or persons unless such person or persons shall discover in said claim mineral bearing rock in place.