§ 3842.1-5 - Conformity of placer claims to the public land surveys.

(a) All placer-mining claims located after May 10, 1872, shall conform as near as practicable with the United States system of public-land surveys and the rectangular subdivisions of such surveys, whether the locations are upon surveyed or unsurveyed lands.

(b) Conformity to the public-land surveys and the rectangular subdivisions thereof will not be required where compliance with such requirement would necessitate the placing of the lines thereof upon other prior located claims or where the claim is surrounded by prior locations.

(c) Where a placer location by one or two persons can be entirely included within a square 40-acre tract, by three or four persons within two square 40-acre tracts placed end to end, by five or six persons within three square 40-acre tracts, and by seven or eight persons within four square 40-acre tracts, such locations will be regarded as within the requirements where strict conformity is impracticable.

(d) Whether a placer location conforms reasonably with the legal subdivisions of the public survey is a question of fact to be determined in each case, and no location will be passed to patent without satisfactory evidence in this regard. Claimants should bear in mind that it is the policy of the Government to have all entries whether of agricultural or mineral lands as compact and regular in form as reasonably practicable, and that it will not permit or sanction entries or locations which cut the public domain into long narrow strips or grossly irregular or fantastically shaped tracts. (Snow Flake Fraction Placer, 37 L.D. 250.)