Prospectors Research Tools

[Clay Diggins]

Prospector's Research Tools

I haven't been around much this summer and with the desert prospecting season just starting it's a good time to show off what I did this long hot summer. I have been working with a few friends on a new non-profit organization to give you a single place for all your land research.

The result is MyLandMatters.Org. This is the gateway to your land information repository. Maps, books, tutorials, community resources and quality, easy-to-access information about the land around you.

No ads, No memberships, No log-in required.

This past spring while sitting around with some friends we came to the conclusion that most of the important and useful things that we want to know about the land around us was difficult to locate and tough to understand. Despite the many sources of information there was no single place to find the information available.

We decided we could do something about that. We agreed to put our time and energy into creating a single place that anyone could find the answers to questions about the land.

It's a big project. It has taken a lot of work, learning and resources to get things started. But after six months of long days, and more than a few nights, the Land Matters repository is ready for you to use.

Land Matters is all about the land. You can find Land Status Maps, Active Mining Claims Maps (with live direct links into the current LR2000 claims database), A great collection of mining books, Land Laws, Geology books and maps, Forest Travel Plans and a whole lot more.

Land Matters is for land users. Our collections are guided by community input. That's you. Let us know what kind of material you would like to find in our Library or a particular map you would like to see. Help us build Land Matters to best serve the community.

We've already got a lot of things that prospectors have been asking for - the claims maps alone were almost universally requested. Land Matters isn't just for prospectors and miners. But you can help prioritize our efforts and drive the content of Land Matters. Prospectors now have a unique opportunity to help guide and build an information resource designed by prospectors and for prospectors.

We are just getting started filling the Library but there will be hundreds of books, maps and items added in the next few weeks. We've even got a Newsletter so you can get regular updates about new additions to the Land Matters repository.

Check it out and let me know what you think. Here are a few good places to start:

Tutorials - the current focus is on understanding Land Status.
Maps - We all like maps and we've got some you will love.
Library - search for something.

Heavy Pans
Barry & Leigh

 

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[fowledup]

I LOVE IT. What used to take hours and sometimes days literally takes minutes! There is so much information and potential for what can be done with this site, my evil little twin hopes nobody else figures it out. Haven't watched much TV since the California Claims map came out. Thanks Ruby, Clay, and others making this happen.

 

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[KevinInColorado]

Cool video and thanks for the CO shout out!

 

[Clay Diggins]

New Mining Maps! Silver, Copper and Mercury!

You both are welcome! Anything that keeps prospectors away from the TV and doing research has to be a good thing. No gold on that TV.

Since I moved the Mining Claims Maps to their own page the Mines Maps page was looking pretty weak. So I put up new United States Silver, Copper and Mercury Mines Maps.

I'm still working out how to present some of the data there but I hope you will use them and let me know what you would like changed.

More coming tonight!

Heavy Pans

 

[Clay Diggins]

Ghost Towns! Parks!

This next series of maps are going to be a big help for the history buffs, location researchers and treasure hunters.

First up is the Historic Places Map. This little beauty has more than 10,000 Ghost Towns, Abandoned Train Depots and Stops, Abandoned Farms, Abandoned Airfields and Abandoned Dams and Locks. I'm thinking the folks here at TNet can figure out what to do with this map.

A companion for the Historic Places Map is the new Parks and Public Commons Map. This maps shows the locations of more than 67,000 public parks!

And just to give those history researchers another source for old locations we've included the Historic Topo Search Map in with this group. With more than 250,000 topo maps as old as 1882 it's going to be a lot easier to find those old homesteads, schools and roads.

That trio of maps is the last for this weekend but we have a lot more planned for the near future. Keep an eye out here or even better subscribe to the Land Matters Landmark Newsletter and get all the updates and news fresh and free!

Heavy Pans

 

[KevinInColorado]

The parks map is impressive...even includes the soccer/baseball park in my own neighborhood!

 

[Clay Diggins]

The parks map is impressive...even includes the soccer/baseball park in my own neighborhood!

Thanks Kevin! We try to get the best locational data we can. We have tested this set quite a bit and so far it has been very good.

We can't check every location and we know that not every place our users want to see are on the map.

Let us know if something is missing or out of place. Find the actual coordinates on the map for where the missing or wrong place is and send them to Land Matters along with a place name. We will put it on the map or relocate it.

Land Matters really is about the users and you can help us make better, more accurate maps!

Heavy Pans

 

[Goldwasher]

How about Right of ways?

 

[Jeff95531]

This next series of maps are going to be a big help for the history buffs, location researchers and treasure hunters.

First up is the Historic Places Map. This little beauty has more than 10,000 Ghost Towns, Abandoned Train Depots and Stops, Abandoned Farms, Abandoned Airfields and Abandoned Dams and Locks. I'm thinking the folks here at TNet can figure out what to do with this map.

A companion for the Historic Places Map is the new Parks and Public Commons Map. This maps shows the locations of more than 67,000 public parks!

And just to give those history researchers another source for old locations we've included the Historic Topo Search Map in with this group. With more than 250,000 topo maps as old as 1882 it's going to be a lot easier to find those old homesteads, schools and roads.

That trio of maps is the last for this weekend but we have a lot more planned for the near future. Keep an eye out here or even better subscribe to the Land Matters Landmark Newsletter and get all the updates and news fresh and free!

Heavy Pans

Metal detecting is my second passion...I can hardly keep up with you and all I'm doing is reading!

 

[PaulieNoNuggets]

I have three tabs open. Footprints, mylandmatters.org, Google earth. I know everything! I HAVE THE POWER!!!

 

[goldenIrishman]

LOl.... Yup! If "Knowledge is power", then Clay and the team are well on their way towards turning us all into "Super Miners".

As far as the historical maps go, How about one that would show the old mining districts? I've found a lot of reports that mention this district or that, but have no idea as to where the boundaries for them are. I think knowing where they were/are could go a long ways toward making more sense of those old reports.

 

[BurntBear]

 

[Clay Diggins]

Arkansas and Louisiana Geology

We've got some new Geology Maps this weekend!

First up is the Arkansas State Geology with Faults and Dikes map layers.

Following close behind is the Louisiana State Geology with a few Faults mapped in the northwest corner.

More coming soon!

I hope to finish up the southern states base geology this week.

Let us know what you would like to see next.

Heavy Pans

 

[PaulieNoNuggets]

LOl.... Yup! If "Knowledge is power", then Clay and the team are well on their way towards turning us all into "Super Miners".

As far as the historical maps go, How about one that would show the old mining districts? I've found a lot of reports that mention this district or that, but have no idea as to where the boundaries for them are. I think knowing where they were/are could go a long ways toward making more sense of those old reports.

I second that! When researching an area I like to use the mining district as a search reference to get an idea what kind of gold had been found there before.
Once I know the district it makes it easier to find out which mines were around there, and then I can get a bunch more information from there. Always takes me a while to even figure out which district I'm looking in though.

 

[Clay Diggins]

I understand why you would want the mining districts mapped but I'm unsure that would ever be possible except for in some pretty limited areas. I would like to be the one to map them but I'd need a lot more information before that map could be very useful.

I've been studying and collecting information on the mining districts for quite a few years. Often these mining districts were no more than a few dozens of square miles. In California a lot of the districts only covered a single hill or a single gulch. Some of the districts in the desert southwest would get as big as a few hundred square miles. Most were like Rich Hill, Arizona with three different districts covering a single small area.

At the end of WWII very few mines could be reopened and most of the districts just faded away. In some cases the records were deposited with the County Recorder while in many cases the District Secretary just never returned from the war or a district meeting was never called to close the books. A lot of history was lost there.

It's important to remember that these districts got their power from the law and from the fact that they were the acknowledged experts on mining in their district. They only represented miners that were mining one type of deposit. Gold districts didn't represent miners in nearby asbestos or chromite districts. Apples and oranges.

There is a great collection of mining district records in the Land Matters Mining History Library. Just do a search for:
Early Records of Gilpin County, Colorado 1859-1861 - Mining Districts
to see a good collection. It's about a 19 Mb pdf with some great information about how real mining districts were run by the miners.

If you have any information about the real boundaries of these past mining districts please share them. I think it's important that we keep the knowledge of how to govern a mining district and just how they were an important political and legal tool for the miners in a district.

Heavy Pans

 

[Maitland]

I know earlier in this thread I suggested the idea of mapping water rights on Land Matters. I had another idea/suggestion for Land Matters maps, would it be possible to map areas that are currently closed to prospecting on public lands because of "environmental" circumstances? This came to mind in lieu of some recent efforts by the Forest Circus to shut down some 17,000 acres to mineral entry because of "Botanical Areas" and "Research Natural Areas" (it hasn't "passed" yet but is up for consideration). Maybe someone has already suggested this, or there are maps that cover these areas shut off to mineral entry (if there are I didn't notice). Just thought I'd throw it out there anyway.

 

[Clay Diggins]

We have already mapped the wilderness areas. We are working on several expansions to the Land Status maps including a much more in depth study of closures, withdrawals and designated monuments and National Recreation Areas. Most of that is nearing completion so hopefully at least some of it will be available soon.

We are running up against a hard disk limit on our Land Matters server so we have to be careful what we add until we get funding for more drive space. We served more than 100 Gb of information to Land Matters users and more than a third of a million files and pages. We are approaching a million hits in our first three months. We've gotten pretty close to our limit each of those 3 months. More stuff requested by more users requires a bigger server.

I don't know of any mineral closures strictly for "environmental" reasons. I'd be interested in any pending closures you have heard of for any reason.

I agree that it's important to track these reserved public lands and more importantly to investigate the actual extent of the closure. Often the "information" available from the management agencies is contrary to the actual terms of the withdrawal.

Heavy Pans

 

[Reed Lukens]

The only new one that we heard was the Carson River areas and lots of Nevada. It's more from the executive order for BLM.
Meetings set on BLM management plan for Carson City District - Washington Times

Here's an old post of the BLM plan for those who haven't seen the hype.
Obama Signs Executive Order To Legalize BLM?s Land Grabs // Mr. Conservative

I wasn't sure if this is what you were talking about Clay but the Carson area was news to me today. We keep watching but haven't seen it in person here yet. Lots of areas all over the US are having mineral entry being taken away.

Federal Land Grab: Feds steal 3 Million Acres of Nevada Land; Close it to Public Use

 

[Clay Diggins]

The only new one that we heard was the Carson River areas and lots of Nevada. It's more from the executive order for BLM.
Meetings set on BLM management plan for Carson City District - Washington Times

Here's an old post of the BLM plan for those who haven't seen the hype.
Obama Signs Executive Order To Legalize BLM?s Land Grabs // Mr. Conservative

I wasn't sure if this is what you were talking about Clay but the Carson area was news to me today. We keep watching but haven't seen it in person here yet. Lots of areas all over the US are having mineral entry being taken away.

Federal Land Grab: Feds steal 3 Million Acres of Nevada Land; Close it to Public Use

Thanks Reed.

I was aware of this plan but I'm looking for actual environmental closures. A proposed ACEC doesn't amount to a mineral closure.

I agree there are lot's of proposals for closures out there but most don't succeed. I would think that any mineral closures in Nevada are going to be drowned in the back room by the overwhelming mining lobby there. There is still really big money in mining. Money talks. Will keep an eye on that situation.

Heavy Pans

 

[Clay Diggins]

Claims Maps Update!

As promised all of the BLM LR2000 claims maps have been updated this weekend. Lot's of changes this time. Check it out!

Lots more coming soon!

Heavy Pans

 

[Reed Lukens]

That was nice, it's been years since I've seen some of this I used to have the historical layer here also but it went out with windows NT lol... I had one of the first complete GIS systems long ago but it went out with the times around the turn of the century. I love looking at the history and everything else Great Job Clay!