Multiple stones to mark a common corner

I've seen stones remonumented with other stones, the original set under the new one, but I've never seen two stones used for the original, very cool!!

Now for the flip side; a single stone marking multiple corners.

My avatar is a corner to three mineral surveys. The first survey was done in 1874 for MS 204, the Mother Lode. Because of the GLO policy in effect in 1902, the patent description placed the Mother Lode a little over 600 feet to the NW. The land owner panicked and had a mineral surveyor restake the monumented position of the Mother Lode as the Mater Lode (MS 15889). The field notes of the Mater Lode were falsified by the deputy to comply with the Land Office policy (i.e. 600 feet to the NW to show the Mother Lode's patent description position). A patent for the Mater Lode was subsequently issued and the county assessor's records show that the same person owns both the Mother and Mater lodes. Even though they occupy the same ground, the assessor has taxed the owner as if they are two separate parcels!

A year after the policy was rescinded, a lode claim (Towne Lode, MS 17327) abutting the Mother/Mater lodes was done by the same deputy. His field notes state that, "Cor. No. 4, identical with Cor. No. 1 Sur. No. 204 Mother lode, as staked and with Cor. No. 1 Sur. No. 15889, Mater Lode, as staked". The Colorado Surveyor General, John Vivian, sent out instructions to U.S. Deputy Mineral Surveyors after the Act of April 28, 1904 was passed into law, requiring deputies to add the term "as staked" to document that the monumented position was used.

Here are some photos of the stone, which is a quartz monzonite porphyry. The large tabular crystals are Carlsbad-twinned orthoclase.

The east face of the stone chiseled, "1-204"

Close-up of the east face. The bottom of the stone is chiseled "Am" as an amended survey of the Mother Lode was later done (the reason for that is another story. Executive summary: The owner petitioned the GLO to rescind the patent and reissue a new one because the length of the lode was 1624 feet instead of 1500 feet. It had shared a common end line with another lode. The result of the amended survey was that it created a 124 foot gap that had to be claimed by two other lodes).

The top face of the stone, chiseled "1-15889".

The west face of the stone chiseled "4-17327".

Close-up of the west face.

GAWD, I love mineral surveys!

What minerals exist in the area of your avatar stone? How deep are they?

HC,

The main minerals are gold and silver although there is an adjudicated water right that is more valuable today. The Mother Lode was the first lode claim in the area. There are many lode claims that were staked along the London Fault. An early publication indicates that the mineralization in the London Fault is 18" thick and assayed at 2 oz. of silver and 2 oz. of gold (per ton). Most surveyors don't have any idea about mining and when I present this as a case history, someone invariably asks if 2 oz. of gold per ton is good or bad! 😉

A few years ago I put together a map of all the claims in the area. Here is an aerial showing the lode claims with the Mother Lode (Cor. No. 1 is the most southerly corner) in red. The strike of the London Fault is rather obvious.

As for how deep the workings go, there is a Colorado Geological Survey bulletin that discusses the London Mine and it indicates 700 feet. Here is a link to a 110 MB PDF file. The London Fault is discussed on pages 102 through 113. Chapter VIII, "Ore Deposits of London Mountain and Mosquito Gulch" (pages 198-216) has three plates on the London Mine which include a plan view, a longitudinal section on the main vein, and geologic cross sections. I know that at one time different levels were owned by separate parties similar to condos.

https://app.box.com/s/xpfbnojkt0lgxch4rimedlwzbm2c6uzd

I have no feel for mining and processing costs. How many oz|ton is break even?

Bill,

There are many variables such as deposit type, size of deposit, remaining ore reserves, mining method(s), processing costs, environmental and regulatory costs, etc. For example, the Carlin-type disseminated deposits in Nevada are usually mined by open pit and use cyanide heap leaching to extract the gold after the ore has been crushed.

The ore grade for Carlin-type gold deposits in Nevada average in the 0.2 to 0.25 oz. per ton. How economic that is depends on the price of gold.

Years ago, I had the privilege of retracing some of these old mining claims in CO. It was a blast and a real skill to find and identify those old scribes in the rock. We stared into rocks for what felt like hours. This was before Amendment 64 passed in CO, but my party chief wasn't too concerned with that technicality.

roger_LS, post: 400972, member: 11550 wrote: This was before Amendment 64 passed in CO, but my party chief wasn't too concerned with that technicality.

Just saying, but finding stones is a different high from being stoned! Glad you had fun.

A month (or so) ago I posted that I couldn't remember a "Stone Mineral Survey" in Utah. A week or so later I was talking to a "young" Land Surveyor about my current project (which is ALL wood posts), and I remembered a rather large "Stone Corner" survey that Matt and I recovered a few Stones on a couple of years ago. There were about 20 Lode Claims in the Survey, but we were Retracing a PLSS Section, and only tying in the MS Corners to aid in our PLSS Retracement. In fact, it was a Wood Post MS Corner (different MS) that led us to the Original Stone marking the West å? Corner of "our" Section, which was situated about N45å¡W 107 feet from an "old" Mining Company Brass Cap that was set by Single Proportion between the SW & SE Corners of said Section. We were never able to find any evidence that the "old brass cap" had ever been used (or even recovered) by anybody, but the "true" å? Corner is very important to the current land status in BOTH Sections.

I would LOVE to retrace that Stone Corner MS Survey, but I doubt that it will happen anytime soon.

Loyal

Gene Kooper, post: 400977, member: 9850 wrote: Just saying, but finding stones is a different high from being stoned! Glad you had fun.

It was an incredible experience for a young kid right out of high school hiking around those beautiful mountains and getting exposed to this type of work. Needless to say, I never came close to mastering the skill of finding those old chisels in the rock, it's amazing you guys can see and recover those old marks, really cool!

Loyal, post: 400979, member: 228 wrote: A month (or so) ago I posted that I couldn't remember a "Stone Mineral Survey" in Utah. A week or so later I was talking to a "young" Land Surveyor about my current project (which is ALL wood posts), and I remembered a rather large "Stone Corner" survey that Matt and I recovered a few Stones on a couple of years ago. There were about 20 Lode Claims in the Survey, but we were Retracing a PLSS Section, and only tying in the MS Corners to aid in our PLSS Retracement. In fact, it was a Wood Post MS Corner (different MS) that led us to the Original Stone marking the West å? Corner of "our" Section, which was situated about N45å¡W 107 feet from an "old" Mining Company Brass Cap that was set by Single Proportion between the SW & SE Corners of said Section. We were never able to find any evidence that the "old brass cap" had ever been used (or even recovered) by anybody, but the "true" å? Corner is very important to the current land status in BOTH Sections.

I would LOVE to retrace that Stone Corner MS Survey, but I doubt that it will happen anytime soon.

Loyal

OOPS... I meant NW and SW corners above (senior moment).

Loyal