The latest episode of Gold Trails touched on this. If a claim is truly closed or abandoned, then you can prospect it. But you need to know the local laws about what you can do on that land. They happened to mention that in a National "Recreation" Area, you can't gold prospect to recreate. Go figure.

Tim is VERY correct, always call the BLM for the region and ask what equipment you can use before you start a project. Treat them with respect and they will show it in return. Remember that the person on the other end of the phone did not make the laws, they are there to make sure they are followed and protect natural resources.

Yes you can samle the area .But get ahold of the BLM ,and the county to make sure it is abanded .It has to be listed in both places .

I really appreciate the input! Thanks to each of you.

After going through this recently... Filing a claim thing...

The LR2000 is only a small part to the puzzle....

After filing my first claim (and I *think* I did everything correctly), I was looking at another area... LR2000 showed no claims in the
quarter section I was interested in... I also understand what a patented claim is, and they show up on the Geocommunicator, with
PLSS on because of their odd shape.. What I did not know is that Homesteads, mostly following the PLSS grid don't show up...
The other thing I learned, at least in my area, the State owns little bits of land here and there throughout the federal land.

If you turn on "surface management agency" in the Geocommunicator, you can see which land is controlled by the BLM(should be yellow)... You can
also download the PLAT maps, and then have the fun of figuring out how to read them... Or you can go down to the BLM office and
buy the fancy maps, they are $4 each, and if you have my luck, every area I've ever looked at is at the corner, so I have to buy 4 of them.

Then of course you have the problem of somebody filing on the area you want and they haven't sent the paperwork into the BLM yet, or even
the county... So you *should* check the county clerks office for any filings within the last 90 days. Though there *should* be stakes in the
ground if they just filed, or are planning to file... I say if there aren't new stakes, you're good to go.... Though if there are active claims
in the area, you should pull the paperwork from the clerks office so that you know exactly where they are... The book and page #s are
right on the LR2000, usually. If they aren't, a quick call to the Land Management Officer at the BLM should get that info for you.

If it really is open land, with no strange restrictions, go to town.

Its a fairly convoluted system, it could be a lot simpler, but its not... Its really not that bad to do the research, the hardest part is figuring out
which research you need to do, and where each little bit of information is stored.

Thanks Robert,
So much for the quick question!
Thank you for taking the time to reply......... Very Helpful!

The last episode of Gold Trails is what actually got me off my rear end and deciding to go ahead and look into this claim. I have been looking at it for a couple of months. Everything looks to be open. I made a trip over to the recorder's office this morning, this last record they have on that claim was for the last (expired) owner. 

The wife and I plan to go up there over the long weekend and do a little recon......check for newer posts and/or any posted claim paperwork, etc...

So you conquered the county clerk, that's good... That can be quite the task... You would think they would have a map, but they don't,
its all just paper work... And the clerks, as nice and helpful as they have been to me, don't have a clue about mining claims, they just record
documents and take your $10.

A stupid question, you didn't just look for the claim name did you? Those can change....

The county I deal with, and thankfully they have at least a summary of the documents online, you can't search for Township Range Section, you
actually have to go back and look through every probate document, title transfer, mortgage docs etc...for the past 90 days to find the claim documents.
If you go into the clerks office, they have a computer running software from 1984 where you can search by T,R,S. But it only works on docs from
1984 to present.... If you want older than that its wading through books.

The next county over, records are online (a summary), and they record all property transactions by Township, Range, Section, and you can search it...
Obviously if you come up with docs that say Steve Smith refinanced and Bill Jones got a permit for a new porch, you probably are looking at the wrong section...

I was a little nervous the first time I went to the county clerks office, I knew I didn't know what I was doing, I didn't know what the docs would look like, and
I didn't know what to actually search for, I didn't know what they would let me search for. They've been really nice helpful folks... $1 a copy, no cameras allowed in
the document room, but you can take notes.... And they also clued me in, after I spent $20, that they will e-mail the docs for free.
The folks at the BLM have also been quite helpful (as helpful as they could be) both in the local field office and on the phone to the main office...

Hopefully you already knew all that, and it will be helpful to somebody else who comes along...

I'm just wasting time, its either think about that shiny stuff in a pan, and type about it, or do work... Shiny stuff wins almost every time.

I hope it all works out, and if you can't get rich, hopefully you can at least pay off some of your equipment, or cover your gas money. I'm
still waiting to break even on the all the Jet Dry I've bought.

 Shiny Stuff should always win that battle! 

Yup! It's sure a learning experience.

The folks that I have dealt with so far have been pretty helpful. I hope that if I decide to stake and file the area that I might deal with more of the same type of people. I am sure for them (at least at BLM) it's pretty easy to tell.... I AM NEW to this, for sure.

Thanks for all the input .

Happy Huntin'

I hope that if I decide to stake and file the area that I might deal with more of the same type of people.

Here is the fun part, once you do all the research... The staking and filing is the easy part... You may have to call the BLM to
get the address to send the paperwork, and you will have to talk to the folks at the clerks office for 2 minutes, but once you've
done all the research... If there is gold there, its smooth sailing.

More fun stuff... The rules and regs are DIFFERENT in every state... Federal land, some Federal rules, recorded at the county level, and
governed also by State law.....

I'm in New Mexico and had read all kinds of things about discoverys and monuments of discovery and all that... Guess what... In New Mexico
the actual discovery rule/law was ditched in 1981(*). No requirement for a discovery monument either, just that in a conspicuous place you have
to have your paperwork (I have a corner on a road). Also here, the posts need to be 4 feet tall, not the 3 feet of Nevada...

The form you need to submit to the County... It doesn't actually exist, there is no official form... I just googled for a few seconds and I could not
find the one that I used.. Its been a long day, if you google around, you'll find something... When you print or copy it, make sure you keep
everything at the top of the page... I didn't and the notary at the bank was a little cranky with me because she couldn't use her standard
print out and had to squeeze everything in on a manual typewriter.... Give them LOTS of room on the bottom for the notary business. I was concerned because
there was no place for me to sign on the "sample" form... No worries, the notary adds a whole bunch of crap, and that is where you sign.

The county will copy and record your form... I added a map, its up to you if you do or don't, I've seen some that are just a hand drawn grid... I used the topo map off
of the Geocommunicator to outline my claim. They then will give you back your pretty embossed, notarized form with a book and page# up in the corner... Send that
off to the BLM with your check... I'm not sure if the BLM needs the original or not, I sent the original...

This form is the same exact one that needs to go in your markers(WHEN YOU STAKE IT, PRIOR TO FILING)... The ORIGINAL has to stay with you to get notarized and filed.
Depending on your state it may not have to go in all the markers, if your state even requires 4 corner posts...
New Mexico allows for the "paperwork" to be in only one location, as long as each marker has instructions on how to get to the place where the paper work is. I just put the
paperwork in all the posts....

Once you are recorded at the county, and sent off to the BLM, you need to go update the paperwork in your posts... I'm not sure if you have to immediately update with book and page info
before sending to the BLM or not.. But at some point your paperwork on your claim needs the (state initial(s))MC # and the county book,page info on it... I also included the topo map that
I filed with the county and I also added a second map, satellite image, with the claim outlined...

I did not put my phone # on the forms I filed with the county... I'm going up this weekend to update the paperwork with NMMC#, and I may add my phone #, in case anybody feels the
need to do some digging and tell me where the good gold is.

The biggest problem I had, sinking my NE corner post... That bedrock thing... 3 inches of dirt, then solid ROCK... I got about 3 inches into the rock with my pick and figured that was pretty
good. Then a piled a LOT of rocks at the base...

I enjoyed making the markers.. ProspectingChannel.com sells vids, and you can watch snips of them for free... I based my markers off of theirs... Pretty much the same, except for
the angle brackets on the bottom of the PVC. I used threaded rod spaced at 120 degrees... The cap is a problem, hard as heck to get off... My exterminator was up there, and ran across
my markers.. Sent his nephew up to get the paperwork, and he fought to get the cap off, ended up punching himself in the face when it did come off.

When I went to sink my markers, I was so excited that I didn't even sample or take any dirt home with me... I high tailed it towards the clerks office, and found a bank along the way to do
some notarizing. Have fun with it, put pinwheels on your markers or something if you want to stand out...

I actually had fun with the whole thing....
The hardest part.... figuring out WHAT you need to research, then LEARNING HOW to do the research...
Once that was done, actually DOING the research was easy..

The staking and filing of the claim was easy compared to the research, or I should say "Learning HOW to do the research, and WHAT to research".. Because the research itself was easy.


*1981, discovery aspect eliminated because of new ways of prospecting... Sonar, geological reports, past discoverys etc.... No need to dig a hole to see if there is gold anymore.

Update:
The wife and I made it up to the claim area this past Sunday.
Due to a lack of planning and some time constraints.....Did NOT make it onto the actual claim.
Though we did not make it onto the claim we did sample a dry wash directly below the claim. I have not been able to process much of the material (only a couple of pans worth), though I will say that some of the indicators in the wash look pretty decent to me. LOTS of black sand and quite a bit of quartz. I am hopeful that I do find some color as I work through the material.
Hope to make it back up there in the next few weeks.

Thanks again for the comments!
Jim