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Events/Law or policy · 1872

General Mining Law of 1872

Law or policy, 1872-05-10, United States.

What happened

The General Mining Law of 10 May 1872 governs claims on federal land for locatable minerals. Under it lode claims can be bought at 5 dollars an acre and placer claims at 2.50 dollars an acre. The BLM guide still states those rates.1,2

Why it matters

The law remains the basis for claims to locatable minerals on US federal land.1,2

Story cards

Around the same time

  1. California Gold Rush begins

    California Gold Rush begins.3

  2. Alfred Beit born

    Alfred Beit born (date from Wikidata).4

  3. Pikes Peak (Colorado) gold rush

    Most of the early finds were far from Pikes Peak, yet the rush took its name and led to the founding of Colorado Territory.5,6

  4. San Francisco ships US$724 million of treasure in 16 years

    Eastern ports took US$462 million, England US$168 million and China US$68 million.7,8

  5. Herbert Hoover born

    Herbert Hoover born (date from Wikidata).9

  6. Gold found in the Kimberley (Halls Creek)

    It was the first Western Australian gold excitement, before the 1890s rushes.10,11

  7. Cripple Creek gold rush

    Cripple Creek was the last great Colorado gold camp and its mine is still the state's only large gold mine.12,13

  8. Klondike Gold Rush begins

    Klondike Gold Rush begins.14

Open the full timeline

Where next

People

Inspired byRossiter W. RaymondHe advised Congress as the US Mining Law of 1872 took shape.15

Events

Led toMineral Leasing ActClaims under the 1872 law gave way to leasing for coal and phosphates in 1920.16Inspired bySummitville mine environmental crisisSummitville in 1992 started a national debate on the rules for mining on public land.17ExamplesMining and Minerals Policy ActThe 1970 policy sits over the 1872, 1920 and 1947 laws.16

Sources

  1. Mining Claims and Sites on Federal Lands (PDF) US Bureau of Land Management
  2. Washington, D.C. (item Q61), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  3. Wikidata item Q17550 (California Gold Rush begins)
  4. Wikidata item Q77802 (Alfred Beit)
  5. Colorado Gold Rush Colorado Encyclopedia
  6. Denver (item Q16554), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  7. Peabody A., Early voyages to California (treasure shipped from San Francisco 1854-1869) Library of Congress (Essex Institute Historical Collections)
  8. Wikidata item Q62 (San Francisco)
  9. Wikidata item Q35236 (Herbert Hoover)
  10. The Rush for Gold (WA Goldfields) Western Australian Museum
  11. Halls Creek (item Q992686), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  12. Cripple Creek Colorado Encyclopedia
  13. Cripple Creek (item Q117605), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  14. Wikidata item Q631489 (Klondike Gold Rush begins)
  15. Hall of Fame: Rossiter Raymond Mining Foundation of the Southwest
  16. About Mining and Minerals US Bureau of Land Management
  17. The Summitville Mine and its downstream effects (OFR 95-23) US Geological Survey

Pictures on this page: Rossiter worthington raymond photo.jpg, Not stated (portrait before 1919) (Public domain).

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Pictures: Kimberley, South Africa: miners and washing gear at the Bultfontein diamond mine. Woodburytype, 1888, after a photograph by Robert Harris., Harris, Robert, active 1881-1888. (Public Domain Mark 1.0); Falu gruva, Lundberg, Bengt A / Europeana (CC0 1.0); Gold prospectors constructing a long box with a filter for panning gold. Process print after H.M. Paget, 1899., Henry Marriott Paget (Public Domain Mark 1.0); Pangkalpinang. Mijn 3b. Een reeks koelies bezig met het transporteeren van grond, Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0).