Bevis v. Markland

• Decision Date: 14 May 1904
• Docket Number: 983.
• Citation: 130 F. 226
• Parties: BEVIS v. MARKLAND et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Washington

130 F. 226

BEVIS v. MARKLAND et al.

No. 983.

United States Circuit Court, E.D. Washington, Northern Division.

May 14, 1904

E. M Heyburn, for plaintiff.

John R McBride, for defendants.

HANFORD District Judge.

The ground which is the subject of controversy in this case is situated about 10 miles from the city of Spokane, in a region of country which is generally agricultural in character, and not known to be mineralized. In the year 1897 the defendant S. S. Markland, together with J. H. Wilson and J. W. Angles made a location of a vein or lode mining claim 1,500 feet by 600 feet in size, to which they applied the name of the 'White Cap lode,' or 'Placer Ground,' and the defendants have since claimed title to said ground by virtue of the laws of the United States relating to the location of mining claims upon veins or lodes of quartz or other rock in place, bearing gold, silver, cinnabar, lead, tin, copper, or other valuable deposits, and by reason of compliance on their part with the requirements of the law as to discovery marking boundaries, posting and recording notices, and expenditure of money and labor during each succeeding year in the development of said claim, and holding continuous possession thereof. Within the boundaries of the White Cap claim there is a large deposit of quartz rock appearing above the surface, in the form of a sugar loaf, which, so far as it has been tested by assayers, contains only a trace of gold and silver, and is 98 per cent. pure silica. Whether it is a mere deposit on the surface, or an outcropping of a continuous vein or lode penetrating vertically into the earth, and whether the substance is uniform in character, or a mere capping over a vein of ore holding gold, silver, or other metal of sufficient value to yield a profit over and above the expense of extracting it from the base substance which contains it, are queries which the evidence leaves unanswered. The defendants claim, however, that the indications which they have discovered justify them in expending labor and money in the hope that they will develop a valuable gold mine. The rock is very hard, and can be used advantageously in the construction of buildings and lining of smelter furnaces, and may be pulverized and used for the manufacture of glass; and for these purposes it has a commercial value, aside from any additional value which it may have by reason of precious metals contained therein.

The plaintiff claims part of the same ground, including the deposit of quartz, by an assignment to him of a mining claim which his grantor located in the year 1902, as a placer claim, under section 2329, Rev. St. U.S. (U.S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 1432), and other statutes of the United States authorizing citizens to acquire title to placer mines, and lands containing deposits of rock and other substances commercially valuable as commodities. Said claim is called the 'Pioneer Placer Mining Claim,' and embraces 20 acres of land, being part of a legal subdivision according to United States surveys. By bringing this action to acquire legal and actual possession of the whole of the Pioneer claim, the plaintiff has assumed the burden of establishing a right of possession superior to the rights of the defendants evidenced by their prior actual possession. He must prove affirmatively that his grantor complied technically with all of the...