Series 24041

A separate agency history is available.

DESCRIPTION: In the 1890s miners flocked to San Juan County in search of gold which had been discovered in traces in the sandbars of the rivers and in the sandstone. Location notices were recorded in accordance with federal law, which decreed that mineral deposits in the public domain were free and open to exploration, and locators of the same had exclusive right of possession (see Statutes at Large, Treaties, and Proclamations, of the United States of America, 1872, vol. XVII, chap. 152). Federal law authorized the organization of mining districts to oversee local mining operations and to record claims. Each Monumental District location notice provides a description of the claim and the boundaries thereof, tells the name of the claim and the names of locators, and gives the date of location. Each notice is signed by A.L. Riplee, district recorder. All location notices included in the Monumental Mining District's mining location notices book are placer claims along the San Juan and Colorado Rivers, and all were recorded between January and April 1896. The Monumental book also includes a few notices of mill site water rights along the San Juan River.

ARRANGEMENT: Location notices are arranged chronologically in the order filed.

RESEARCH NOTE: This volume also includes location notices in the Williams District, but recorded by the Monumental District recorder.

RELATED RECORDS: Additional mining location notices for the Williams District are in MINING LOCATION NOTICES, series 24040. Beginning in 1897 all mining location notices in this area were recorded by the San Juan County recorder in MINING RECORDS, series 84250 or in MINING LOCATION NOTICES (PETROLEUM), series 24000 . By-laws for the Monumental District were recorded by the San Juan County recorder in MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS, Book B, p. 267-268, series 23400. In 1908 miners in the Monumental District reorganized to manage petroleum exploration and production. MINING DISTRICT MINUTES, series 24042, contain information about revised district rules and regulations and petroleum drilling activities.

PROCESSING NOTE: Monumental Mining District location notices were microfilmed by San Juan County in February 2001 and processed by Rosemary Cundiff in January 2002.

PREFERRED CITATION: Cite the Utah State Archives and Records Service, the creating agency name, the series title, and the series number.