Placer Claim Etiquette & Asking for Permission

[aaronburrsir]

New to gold everything. I've been doing a lot of research on the Briceburg area and I notice that a lot of the historical gold producing spots on Merced river are pretty well claimed up. I also noticed that you can go into the BLM database and find names/addresses of who currently owns the claim.

I'm considering sending some of them an actual real life letter asking for permission for basic panning/sluicing and I'm wondering if others have done the same, or if it's easier to find/contact claim owners some other way. Obviously I have zero interest in claim jumping and will do everything above board and would never in my life do stuff without permission, including not doing anything if they said no. I would also offer to pay for day access etc.

Also I have been able to find some areas that aren't claimed currently but historically have closed claims.

General Claim Question
If a claim is currently marked as "closed" and the most recent claim history indicates either a claim being forfeited or a claim being declared as "null and void" does that mean that the area then becomes claimable by anyone again?

 

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[spillercanyon]

How can we tell what is open from that pdf map? It doesn't really show whats claimed and whats open. Appreciate the feedback. Ty.

I tried to use LandMatters to download MTP files but it seems the General Land Office documents come in a .J2 file that I can't seem to open on my macbook. I tried so many different applications and they all throw up file format cannot be interpreted or the file is corrupted. I even uploaded to gmail and it cannot interpret it either. Seems like the files are all corrupt. Anyone have similar problems with the MTP files?

I updated the picture, if that doesn't work use the link provided. It is very clear where the current claims are.

Get some gold!!!

 

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[Tanneyhill]

Most states now provide their MTPs in JP2 (jpeg 2000) format. This is an extension of the JPEG format with better compression. I think it's crappy that they use a file format that most people can't read but it is what it is. The files aren't corrupted.

All my Macs read the JP2 format fine with the native Preview app. Preview can read, convert and save in the JP2 format. I'm running version 10.00 of Preview maybe you have an earlier version?

Appreciate the clarification that the files aren't corrupt. My Preview version is Version 11.0 (1018.6.2) so newer than yours. Perhaps the agency's format is not compatible with newer versions. I will try tomorrow on another computer to see if I get the same thing or not. Will let ya'll know. Thank you again for the kind feedback. 🙏

 

[Tanneyhill]

I updated the picture, if that doesn't work use the link provided. It is very clear where the current claims are.

Get some gold!!!

Ah I missed those red areas on the map. Duh! My apologies.

 

[N-Lionberger]

Local clubs, not all of them but these are some of the big clubs in the area.
United Prospectors
AMRA
Delta Gold Diggers

This is a blm map of open prospecting near Briceburg, the pdf can be found at:

https://www.blm.gov/sites/blm.gov/files/documents/files/media-center-public-room-california-merced-river-recreation-map.pdf

Best of luck to you!!!

Don’t Forget the East Bay Prospectors, a lot of members are also in United Prospectors.