Location Certificates
Once the survey had been marked for the miner’s discovery area then the miner could use that document, a duly signed and filed Location Certificate, that gave him the right to own any minerals discovered thereafter in the designated site.
Discovery of valuable minerals is, of course, the moment at which the whole claims process becomes worthwhile, but it is prior to the moment of discovery that a miner had to have filed with the county recorder his proof of ownership.
The Location Certificate, was crucial to upholding law and order, for upon this document rested the merit of a miner’s claim to own valuable minerals discovered on the surveyed land.