Series 24334

A separate agency history is available.

DESCRIPTION: Federal mining law, enacted in 1872, confirmed that individuals had the right to claim mineral wealth in the public domain. However, the law required miners to annually work the ground and perform at least $100 worth of labor on their claims in order to maintain them (Statutes at Large, Treaties, and Proclamations, of the United States of America, 1872, vol. 17, chap. 152). During the years 1893 and 1894 Congress passed joint resolutions temporarily suspending the requirement of annual assessment work. In order to obtain the benefit of this exception, Congress required claim holders to file notices of their intention to hold their claims. Each document in this book is a notice of intent to hold a claim, and all were filed between December 1893 and December 1894. Each notice names a claim, declares the miner's intent to hold that claim, and cites the book and page number where a notice of location was originally recorded. Some notices also provide a legal description of the claim involved. Each notice includes the date filed and is signed by the district recorder.

ARRANGEMENT: Notices are arranged chronologically by date filed.

RELATED RECORDS: The LOCATION NOTICES for claims herein referenced were recorded in series 24331. The same series contains notices of intent to hold claims for later years in which Congress also made exception (1917-1918, 1933-1934). In most years the district recorded PROOF OF LABOR RECORD BOOKS, series 24332, for each claim.

FINDING AIDS: This book includes an alphabetical index at the beginning which references notices by claim name.

PROCESSING NOTE: Records for the Clifton Mining District were processed by Rosemary Cundiff in October 2002. Because of the poor quality of the microfilm, Utah State Archives refilmed this book and updated the inventory in May 2003.

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