In order to secure a valid mining claim there must be a discovery of the vein in the case of a lode claim/ a proper location, including the posting of notice, and (generally) a proper recording of notice.

Section 22. Location

The location of a lode consists in defining its position and boundaries, and in doing such acts as indicate and publish the intention to occupy and hold it under the license of the United States.

The formal parts of location include:

1. The location notice at discovery.

2. The discovery shaft.

3. The boundary stakes.

Although a very old custom, the requirement of the Colorado Act of 1866, repeated in the Act of 1874, as to a location stake was not always considered imperative, but there are decisions under the present statute which enumerate it as one of the constituent parts of a complete location.2

In fact this location notice was in early locations the principal and often the only specific act of location. It was a universal custom before any statutes existed purporting to regulate location.

The words of the act require "a plain sign or notice," but there has never been any uniformity among prospectors in the details of the notice, or in the mode of posting it. It may be substantially complied with by writing on a blazed tree or on a board nailed at discovery or by legible carving, or by any other rude but honest form of notice, so that it be intelligible and open to observation; but the loose practice of writing on a chip or stick thrown into the discovery hole, is an attempt to evade or abuse the fair requirements of the law. In Gird vs. California Oil Co.,3 the notice was placed in a tin can on a mound of stones and it was ruled a proper posting. The following fully complies with the law and custom, and would still be sufficient without signing at the foot and without stating the number or direction of feet claimed.4

1 See Section 17 as to what will supply this necessity for a discovery of a vein.

2 Strepey vs. Stark, 7 Colo., 618; Cheesman vs. Shreeve, 40 F, 787;17M,R.,260.

Form of Notice on Stake.

The Famine Lode, discovered by Patrick Corcoran, February 17, 1907. I claim 750 feet easterly and 750 feet westerly from discovery. Patrick Corcoran.

This notice need not call for monuments or ties- that is required of the record only.5 Such notice holds the claim for a reasonable time before setting the boundary stakes or other work.6

The discovery must be sunk upon unoccupied public land; that is to say, it must be outside of the lines of any patent or even of any valid location.7

The details of location are mainly regulated by State statutes.8

3 60 F., 581; 18 M. R., 45.

4 Morrison's Mining Rights, pp.

35-6. 5 Poujade vs. Ryan, 33 P., 660;

Brady vs. Husby, 33 P., 801. 6 Union Co. vs. Leitch, 64 P., 829.

Upton vs. Larkin, 6 P., 66; Watson vs. Mayberry, 49 P., 479; Peoria Co. vs. Turner, 79 P., 915. 8 See Statutes of several states.