NATIONAL FOREST RESOURCES 229 



at the local Land Office notice of the beginning of 

 such intended absence. 



The Mining Laws. Mineral deposits within 

 National Forests are open to development exactly 

 as on unreserved public land. A prospector can 

 go anywhere he chooses and stake a claim wherever 

 he finds any evidences of valuable minerals. The 

 only restriction is that mining claims must be bona 

 fide ones and not taken up for the purpose of ac- 

 quiring valuable timber or a town or a water power 

 site, or to monopolize the water supply of a stock 

 range. Prospectors may obtain a certain amount 

 of National Forest timber free of charge to be used 

 in developing their claims. More than 500 mining 

 claims are patented within the National Forests 

 every fiscal year. 



A good example of mining claims located for 

 fraudulent purposes were those located on the rim 

 and sides of the Grand Canyon in Arizona to pre- 

 vent the people from gaining free access to the 

 canyon and make them pay to enter it. These 

 claims were shown to be fraudulent since no de- 

 posits of any kind were ever found on them. They 

 were canceled by the higher courts and the land 

 reverted to the people. 



