ABSTRACT

From the beginning, there was considerable uncertainty concerning the role the executive branch o f the federal government would play in administering the Mining Law. Born in an age when the principal thrust o f federal land policy was disposal and federal land regulatory machinery was nearly nonexistent, the Mining Law contemplated regulation and administration mostly by the miners themselves and by state and local governments. Though such regulation was made subservient to federal law, the only direct federal executive role provided for in the statute was played by the federal Supervisor o f Surveys in passing on patent applications. (With the creation o f the Bureau o f Land Management in 1946, that function came to be assumed by the bureau.1)

With characteristic lack o f precision, the statute provided that disputes between claimants would be settled in proceedings in an unspecified “court o f competent jurisdiction.” 2 An 1865 statutory precursor o f the Mining Law clouded the matter still further by providing that “possessory actions” over “mining titles” between persons in federal court shall not be affected by the fact that the United States owned the land in question, but shall instead be “ad­ judged by the law o f possession.” 3 The “law” referenced was appar­ ently the miners3 codes, state law, and perhaps even local law as well.