CIRCULAR No. 1193 COAL-LAND REGULATIONS-PARAGRAPHS 8 AND 22 AMENDED DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR. GENERAL LAND OFFICE, Registers, United States Land Offices. GENTLEMEN: Paragraph 8 of the regulations (Circular No. 679) of April 1, 1920 (47 L. D. 489), governing coal-mining leases, permits, and licenses under the act of February 25, 1920 (41 Stat. 437), which paragraph was amended February 15, 1922 (Circular No. 809, 48 L. D. 439), and March 13, 1924 (Circular No. 922, 50 L. D. 320), is hereby amended to read as follows: 8. Minimum development.-An actual bona fide expenditure for mine operation, development, or improvement purposes of the amount determined by the Secretary and stated in the lease offer hereinafter referred to is adopted as the minimum basis for granting leases, with the requirement that not less than one-third of the required investment shall be expended in development of the mine during the first year, and a like amount each year for the two succeeding years, the investment during any one year over such proportionate amount for that year to be credited on the expenditure required for the ensuing year or years. If the investment to be made is fixed at more than $10,000, the lessee shall furnish a bond, with approved corporate surety, conditioned upon compliance with the investment requirement and with the other terms of the lease. After the required investment has been made, a bond in the sum of $5,000, with approved corporate surety, conditioned upon compliance with the terms of the lease, may be substituted for the $10,000 bond. In case of lease of a small area, where the investment to be made is $10,000 or less, the lessee shall furnish a bond, with approved corporate surety or with two qualified individual sureties, to cover both the investment and compliance with the other terms of the lease, such bond to be in half the amount of the investment to be made, but in no case less than $1,000. With bonds signed by individual sureties must be filed affidavits of justification by the sureties that each is worth, in real property not exempt from execution, double the sum specified in the undertaking, over and above his just debts and liabilities. With such bonds must also be furnished a certificate by a judge or clerk of a court of record, a United States district attorney, a United States commissioner, or a United States postmaster, as to the identity, signatures, and financial competency of the sureties. All bonds will be examined from time to time as to their sufficiency, and additional security will be required whenever deemed necessary. Paragraph 22 of said regulations, which paragraph was amended March 13, 1924 (Circular 922, 50 L. D. 320), is hereby amended to read as follows: (g) The applicant must furnish a bond with qualified corporate surety or with two qualified individual sureties (with evidence of qualification, as provided in paragraph 8), the bond to be in the sum of $500 and conditioned upon compliance with the terms of the permit and against failure of the permittee to use reasonable precaution to prevent damage to the coal deposits or to leave the premises in a safe condition upon the termination of the permit. Bond in the sum of $1,500 will be required where the permit embraces land entered or patented with the coal reserved under the act of June 22, 1910 (36 Stat. 583). or where any part of the land is within a reclamation project. The bond may be filed with the application, which will expedite action thereon, or within 30 days after receipt of notice by the applicant that the permit will be granted when the bond is filed. Very respectfully, Approved June 11, 1929. JOHN H. EDWARDS, C. C. MOORE, Commissioner. COLOR OF TITLE AND SMALL HOLDING CLAIMS [Reported, 21 L. D. 157] SMALL HOLDING CLAIMS DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, GENERAL LAND OFFICE, Washington, D. C., September 18, 1895. Registers and Receivers, United States District Land Offices in the Territories of New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah, and the States of Colorado, Nevada, and Wyoming. GENTLEMEN: Your attention is called to the provisions of sections 16 and 17 of the act of Congress approved March 3, 1891, entitled "An act to establish a court of private land claims and to provide for settlement of private land claims in certain States and Territories" (26 Stat. 854), as amended by the act approved February 21, 1893 (27 Stat. 470). As the object of said act is the final adjudication of all private land claims in the States and Territories aforesaid, so the object of said sections 16 and 17 is the final adjudication of that class of private claims, or "small holdings" therein described, and to furnish the means whereby title thereto can be perfected by the claimants thereof. Section 16 relates to "small holdings" situate in those parts of said States and Territories over which the township surveys had not been extended at the date of the passage of said act; and section 17 relates to the same class of claims situate in townships which had been surveyed at that time. By section 16, the right to receive patent for the land occupied is recognized in any person who has, through himself, his ancestors, grantors, or their lawful successors in title or possession, been in the continuous, adverse, actual, bona fide possession of any tract of land, which does not, in itself, or in connection with other tracts so held by him, exceed 160 acres, for 20 years next preceding the time when the survey of the township in which such tract is situate shall be made, and provision is made for the survey of such land and the issuance of patent therefor: Provided, That no person shall be entitled to confirmation of, or to patent for, more than 160 acres in his own right by virtue of this section. By section 17, all persons who have been in the actual, continuous, adverse possession, through themselves, their ancestors, grantors, or those under whom they claim, of tracts of land not exceeding 160 acres each, for 20 years next preceding the time when the survey of the township in which the land is situate was made, are permitted, upon making proof of such possession, and of the further fact that they, or their ancestors or grantors, or those under whom they claim, became citizens of the United States by reason of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo or the terms of the Gadsen purchase, to enter, without payment of purchase money, fees or commissions, such subdivisions, not exceeding 160 acres, as shall include their said possessions: Provided, That no person shall be entitled to enter more than 160 acres in one or more tracts in his own right under the provisions of this section. In order that these claims may be adjudicated, you will secure from the surveyor general, as soon as a township containing such claims shall have been surveyed, a list of the claims therein, with the names of the claimants, and if possible their post-office addresses. In case of townships already surveyed, you should be furnished a list of those claims that have been filed with the surveyor general that conform to legal subdivisions, and where it is necessary to survey the claims the list should be furnished you as soon as the surveys of said claims are approved. When this information has been received you will notify each of the claimants that he will be allowed 90 days to submit proof of his possession and occupation in accordance with the following instructions: 1. Each of the claimants under the provisions of section 16 who was in the actual, adverse, bona fide possession of his claim 20 years prior to the survey of the township in which the land is situated, and has so occupied and held the same continuously from that time on to the making of such survey, will be required to make affidavit to that fact, stating therein the character and origin of his claim, and the material facts relied upon to show such possession. 2. Each of the claimants under the provision of said section 16 who was not in the actual, adverse, bona fide possession of his claim 20 years prior to the survey of the township in which the land was situated, but who bases his claim upon the actual, adverse, bona fide possession of those under whom he holds, will be required to make affidavit to that fact, stating therein the name of the person so occupying the land claimed 20 years prior to such survey, and the name of each of his successors in such occupancy during the said period of 20 years; the respective periods, as near as may be, that the land was so held by each of such successive occupants; the material facts relied upon to show such possession during said period; and giving a complete history of his title to such claim, from the first of the occupants mentioned down to the present claimant. 3. Each of the claimants under the provisions of section 17 will be required to make affidavit in accordance with the foregoing instructions 1 or 2, as the case may be, stating therein the additional facts necessary to show that he became a citizen of the United States by reason of said treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo or the terms of the Gadsen purchase, or that some former occupant or claimant of said land from whom he derived his title or possession so became a citizen of the United States; and in the latter case giving a complete history of the title to his claim from the ancestor or grantor so naturalized down to the present claimant. 4. If documentary evidence of the title of such claimants is in existence such evidence or duly authenticated copies of the documents must be produced and filed by them. 5. Every material fact set forth in the claimant's affidavit, or necessary to the validity of his claim, not established by competent documentary evidence, must be substantiated by the affidavits of not less than two disinterested witnesses having a personal knowledge of the facts. As the proof submitted must depend upon the character of the claim, no blank forms can be prepared applicable to all cases. When such proof has been filed in your office you will examine the same in each case, and if found sufficient, in your opinion, to establish the title of the claimant to the tract applied for, you will approve the same and issue a joint certificate of the form hereto attached, a supply of which will be sent to you as soon as practicable. These entries should be accounted for in a separate series, commencing with No. 1, and may be accounted for on any of your abstracts with the necessary change of heading to indicate the class of claims, and referring to the acts cited. It will be noticed that section 17 of said act, allows entry under said section without payment of purchase money, fees or commissions, and as section 16 does not provide for any payment, entries will be allowed thereunder without fees or commissions. The proof required by these regulations must be made before one of you, or before one of the officers designated by the act of May 26, 1890 (26 Stat. 121). Section 18, act of February 21, 1893, supra, limits the time of filing such claims with the surveyor general to two years after the 1st day of December, 1892, and under this provision claims not filed on or before December 1, 1894, should be rejected by you. Very respectfully, Approved. E. F. BEST, Acting Commissioner. (Form omitted.) [Reported 22 L. D. 523] JNO. M. REYNOLDS, PRIVATE LAND CLAIMS SMALL HOLDINGS DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, GENERAL LAND OFFICE, Washington, D. C., March 25, 1896. Registers and Receivers, United States Land Offices in the Territories of New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah, and the States of Colorado, Nevada, and Wyoming. GENTLEMEN: Referring to the circular of instructions of September 18, 1895 (21 L. D. 157), in relation to claims arising under the sixteenth and seventeenth sections of the act of March 3, 1891 (26 Stat. 854), as amended by the act of February 21, 1893 (27 Stat. 470), you are directed to require the claimant in each of such cases to publish notice of his intention to submit proof of his occupation and possession of the land included in his claim, in accordance with the requirements of said act, under the same terms and restrictions as govern publication of notice in homestead cases. 57720-30-26 |