Agency History
The Newton Mining District, organized 26 November 1892, includes an area in eastern Beaver County along the Piute/Beaver County border. One of the state's major mineral belts extends through the Wah-Wah and Tushar Mountains of Piute and Beaver Counties, and the decade of the 1890s was a boom time for Utah mining. Nineteenth century prospectors organized mining districts in accordance with federal mining law which allows individuals to claim mineral wealth in the public domain (
By federal regulation claims could be 1500 feet along a lode with 300 feet on each side. In order to maintain the claim, prospectors were required to do at least $100 worth of work on the claim annually. Local districts could impose additional requirements as long as they were not in conflict with federal law. The miners of the Newton District required that a poster be placed at the site of location indicating the names of locators and the dimensions of the claim. Monuments or stakes were to mark each corner. All claims were to be recorded within 30 days of discovery.
Newton District recorders were elected from among the miners of the district for one year terms. District by-laws required them to keep a true and correct copy of each claim in a suitable book, and to create an index for the same. By-laws also required recorders to file location notices on the ground. Recorders were allowed to collect one dollar for each location notice recorded and twenty cents per mile for traveling to post location notices on the ground.
Newton District recorders appointed deputies to assist them in carrying out their responsibilities. In 1897 the Utah Legislature enacted a mining law which transferred responsibility for keeping mining records to county recorders. (