The Mining Law of 1872: Past, Politics, and Prospects » (New Edition)

Gordon Morris Bakken earned B.S., M.S., Ph.D., and J.D. degrees from the University of Wisconsin. He teaches courses on American legal and constitutional history, westward movement, American military heritage, women of the American West, women and American law, as well as historical thinking and historical writing at California State University, Fullerton. He is the author or editor of numerous books including Icons of the American West: From Cowgirls to Silicon Valley.

Bakken traces the roots of the mining law and details the way its unintended consequences have shaped western legal thought from Nome to Tombstone.

Disclosure Statement and Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 Chapter 1 An Act to Promote the Development of the Mining Resources of the United States 8 Chapter 2 Local Mining District Regulations 16 Chapter 3 Congress Speaks: The General Mining Laws 25 Chapter 4 Courts Speak: Mucking Out Waste and Processing Words 32 Chapter 5 Location, Location, Location 37 Chapter 6 It's Off to Work We Go 55 Chapter 7 Spurs, Dips, and Angles 62 Chapter 8 Litigation 72 Chapter 9 Tailings, Slickens, and Slimes 82 Chapter 10 Hydraulic Mining 94 Chapter 11 Modernizing the Mining Law of 1872 106 Chapter 12 Environmental Law in the Age of Aquarius 116 Chapter 13 A Frontal Attack on the Mining Law of 1872 126 Chapter 14 The Continuing Attack on the Mining Law of 1872 147 Chapter 15 Badger State Battle for Mining 164 Conclusion 175 Notes 188 Index 233