Inventory to the Mining Recorder records 1895-1972 held at Yukon Archives 1983 Reprinted 2016 Last modified: 2016-06-29 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION – PLACER MINING RECORDS IN YUKON ........................................................... i I-1 APPLICATIONS FOR GRANTS FOR PLACER MINING, 1896-1971 ........................................... 1 I-2 RECORDS OF APPLICATIONS FOR PLACER MINING, 1896-1934 ........................................... 7 I-3 REGISTERED DOCUMENTS (PLACER MINING), 1897-1971 ....................................................11 I-4 RECORDS OF PLACER DOCUMENTS RECEIVED, 1896-1961 ..................................................21 Document Registers ...........................................................................................................................21 Assignments, Etc. ................................................................................................................................22 I-5 RENEWAL GRANTS FOR PLACER MINING, 1906-1972 ............................................................25 I-6 CERTIFICATES OF WORK FOR PLACER MINING, 1898-1906 ................................................27 I-7 RECORD BOOKS FOR PLACER MINING CLAIMS, 1895-1971 .................................................29 Record Books .......................................................................................................................................29 Klondike Creek Books – Conversion List......................................................................................43 Black List ...............................................................................................................................................45 Red List ..................................................................................................................................................50 I-8 INDEXES OF ORIGINAL LOCATORS, 1896-1942 .........................................................................56 I-9 INDEXES OF FREE MINERS CERTIFICATES, 1898-1906 ..........................................................57 I-10 ROYALTY LEDGER BOOKS, 1898-1909 .......................................................................................59 I-11 WATER RIGHTS RECORD BOOKS, 1900-1963 ...........................................................................63 I-12 MISCELLANEOUS PLACER MINING RECORDS & III MISCELLANEOUS MINING RECORDER RECORDS, 1895-1972.........................................................................................................65 II QUARTZ MINING RECORDS .............................................................................................................68 APPENDIX A: GLOSSARY ......................................................................................................................69 INTRODUCTION – PLACER MINING RECORDS IN YUKON Placer gold drew increasing numbers of prospectors and miners to the North during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Most came from the United States, and brought with them American concepts of self-administered mining camp law. Canadian authorities gradually accepted the necessity of imposing Canadian mining regulations in Yukon, and in1894 Inspector Charles Constantine, NWMP, was sent to take up residence at the settlement of Forty Mile on the Yukon River. He was appointed “Agent of the Dominion Government”, and was charged with administering the mining regulations of the North West Territories. These dated back to 1889, and had been designed for application on the prairies. During the years that followed, many confrontations developed between local miners, officials on the spot, and politicians in Ottawa regarding the scope and content of Yukon’s mining regulations. At stake were the prosperity of individual miners, as well as the level of government revenues to be derived from mining. Between 1894 and 1906, Yukon mining regulations were frequently altered and adjusted by Federal Order-in-Council. In some cases regulations were changed up to three times in a single year, in an attempt to satisfy the demands of the mining community, and still provide sufficient levels of government revenue. In 1906 a Yukon Placer Mining Act was approved by Parliament. This was amended in minor respects in subsequent years, however its provisions have remained the basis of placer mining law in Yukon up to the time of writing (in 1983). During the Klondike Gold Rush federal Ministers of the Interior exercised control over four main variables in their efforts to devise equitable mining regulations for Yukon. These dealt with: • The size of placer claims and the fees and procedures for registering claims • The fees and procedures for renewing placer claims and registering their successive ownership • The levying of royalties on placer gold • The registration of miners through Free Miners certificates The size of placer claims was of central importance to miners, as this largely determined the extent of the economic base to which a miner could gain access. Claim size varied greatly as the table below shows: Table 1. Length of Creek Claims 1889-1906 Date of Regulation Length of Claim 1889 (NWT Regulations) 100 feet Dec. 24, 1894 500 feet Aug. 16, 1897 100 feet Jan. 18, 1898 250 feet Jul. 31, 1905 500 feet 1906 (Yukon Placer Mining Act) 500 feet The regulations provided for larger discovery claims, and also prescribed the fees to be charged for registering a claim. At the height of the gold rush, provisions were even made to reserve i Inventory to the Mining Recorder records certain claims by the crown for sale at auction. Grouping claims and granting hydraulic concessions was a practice that proved highly controversial in the early years of the century. After registering a placer claim, the miner was entitled to work the property for one year, at the end of which certain conditions had to be met in order to continue to mine. At first only an annual claims renewal fee was charged. At different times this was as high as $100 and as low as $15. In 1898, however, the Certificate of Work was introduced, a concept which was refined in the years that followed. Generally it required a miner who was renewing, to file an affidavit verifying that $200 worth of work had been done on the claim in the past year. Over the years a detailed fee structure evolved, under which Mining Recorders charged for a wide range of additional services. The regulations for 1902 even authorized mining recorders to charge 25¢ for giving out information verbally. The fee structure continued to be adjusted until it was enacted into legislation in 1906, from which time it has remained largely unaltered (as of 1983). The mining recorder was also responsible for collecting royalties on gold productions. A ten percent royalty was first levied in 1897, with a twenty percent royalty due on gold taken from claims producing in excess of $500 a week. Royalties were unpopular and difficult to collect, and were reduced over the years. The twenty percent surtax was removed in 1898, as were royalties on claims producing less than $2,500 a year. This exemption was raised to $5,000 in 1901, when the rate of royalty dropped from ten to five percent. The Placer Mining Act of 1906 reduced the royalty to only two and one- half percent, and placed the onus for payment on the shipper exporting the gold from the Territory. In estimating the royalty payable, gold was to be valued at $15 an ounce. These provisions were still in force at time of writing (in 1983). Another means of regulating and deriving revenue from the mining industry was through a licensing system. In 1898 the regulations introduced a requirement that all persons and companies involved in mining must have a Free Miners Certificate, which authorized its owner freely to engage in mining. The cost was $10 a year, though by 1905 this had been reduced to $7.50 for the first, and $5 for subsequent years. Higher fees applied to mining companies. The Yukon Placer Mining Act of 1906, however, abolished the Free Miners Certificate. Other matters with which placer regulations have dealt include the grouping and relocation of claims, the assignment of water rights, and the abandonment of claims. Special hydraulic and dredging regulations have also been put into force over the years to control larger scale mining. Since 1970, the Northern Inland Waters Act has superseded some sections of the Yukon Placer Mining Act, controlling the allocation of water rights for placer mining today (as of 1983). The Act of 1906 provided for the appointment of mining recorders for each mining district in the Territory. The Act ordered, and still requires (as of 1983), these officials to maintain all documents relating to mining property and to keep the following books: 1) Records of Applications 2) Record of Refused Applications 3) Record Book 4) Record of Abandonments 5) Record of Documents Received The earliest placer mining records still in existence date from 1896. Prior to devolution, mining records were maintained under the auspices of the federal Department of Indian and Northern ii Introduction Affairs. In the early 1970s the historic significance of these records was recognized and arrangements were made to organize and microfilm non-current mining records and to transfer originals to Yukon Archives for permanent retention. The present organization of these records reflects, as closely as possible, that devised for them at the time they were microfilmed. Under this system, placer records were divided into eleven subject