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374 facts · 512 sources · updated 2026-09-30

Fact dir-002

newrecordconfirmed Where RW 453 was staked, most land is private: federal land is about 37% of Section 28's north half
2026-09-29 · dir-002 · Valar Atomics, Bureau of Land Management, Carbon County Assessor

BLM's survey grid places Section 28, T14S R11E SLM at 39.572-39.586 N, 110.683-110.702 W, directly two miles south of Section 16 (the land the state approved leasing to Valar) and about 3.4 miles northeast of central Wellington. Carbon County's parcel records (compiled statewide by UGRC; parcel shapes current as of 26 November 2025, ownership layer of 18 June 2026) show one federal parcel, 2A-1292-028F (200 acres, recorded as held by the 'United States of America'), in four pieces: about 80 acres in the NE quarter and about 40 acres in each other quarter. Everything else is private. Laying the parcel shapes over the section on a fine grid, the north half (the NW and NE quarters, 320 acres, where the notice places RW 453) is about 119 acres federal (37%), about 100 acres in 17 parcels the county assessor classes as 'Single Family' (residential), and about 93 acres in parcels classed 'Commercial'. The assessor layer does not record whether a house stands on each parcel. BLM's generalized surface-management layer marks the whole section 'Private or Unknown'; the parcel records are the finer source. A lode claim is valid only over federally owned minerals: on the federal pieces if the land is open to mineral entry, and on private surface only where the United States kept the minerals, where Stock-Raising Homestead Act rules require certified-mail notice to the surface owner 30 days before entry (43 CFR 3838.11). Who owns the minerals under the private parcels is not shown in the layers read, and because the notice's survey tie points outside the section (dir-001), where exactly the claim lies within the north half cannot be told from the notice.

In plain termsMost of the land in the part of Section 28 named on the claim notice is privately owned, including parcels the county classes as residential; a little over a third is federal. A mining claim can only cover minerals the federal government owns. Whether this claim sits on the federal pieces, or on private land over federal minerals (which would require notice to the landowner), cannot be told from the notice itself.
verified 2026-09-29: Re-checked and rewritten by Claude 2026-09-29 ~08:00Z. The earlier version (from five point look-ups) said the federal parcel sat in the NE quarter; the shapes show four pieces across all quarters. Method: Section 28 polygon from CadNSDI; 57 intersecting LIR parcels with geometry (saved in the research archive); 120x120 grid point-in-polygon, 14,284 cells in the section (0.045 acre each); residential count = parcels classed Single Family with at least 1 acre inside the north half. HOUSE_CNT and BUILT_YR are empty in Carbon's LIR, so no house count is claimed. Owners of private parcels are not named here on purpose. Correction 2026-09-29 (wording review): lease wording now 'approved leasing'.

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