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Memorandum of Disapproval of Bill for the Validation of Certain Mining Claims in Wyoming

August 09, 1956

I am withholding my approval of S. 3941, an act "To provide for the validation of certain mining claims owned by Arthur W. Hyde, John H. Gossett, Clyne A. Bailey, and Manuel Silva, all of the State of New Mexico, and Thelma Arndt, Wallace (or Wally) Lawson, Richard L. (or R. L.) Greene, Elden F. Keith, Zola Keith, Leon Keith, Lee E. Keith, Robert Arndt, Rose Greene, Ferne Cressy, Marjorie Lawson, and Frank Cressy, all of the State of Wyoming."

S. 3941 provides an additional period of time for the validation of mining claims held by certain specified persons in New Mexico and Wyoming which could have been validated under the Act of August 12, 1953, but which were not validated thereunder solely because of the failure of the holders of the claims to take the necessary steps.

This bill was originally introduced as a general measure, but, after the Department of the Interior recommended that it not be enacted, it was amended so as to be a private relief bill. This was done because the Department of the Interior pointed out that S. 3941 was really of the nature of a private bill, and that, if the bill were amended along such lines, reasons justifying the special treatment of the specific claimants might, perhaps, be produced. Justification for such unusual treatment has not been shown. The twelve persons named in the bill as having claims in Wyoming justify their failure to validate their claims under the Act of August 12, 1953, on the grounds that a search of the records at a land office failed to show the existence of an oil and gas lease at the time of the location of their claims. However, a more diligent search of those records subsequently revealed the existence of an oil and gas lease. One of the persons named in the bill as having a claim in New Mexico based his right upon the fact that a search of the records at a land office failed to show the existence of an oil and gas lease because there had been a delay in making entries in the land office records. There was no evidence that the claimant had taken all possible steps to ascertain the existence of an oil and gas lease. The information on the other three claims is limited.

Under the circumstances, I have no recourse but to withhold my approval of S. 3941. To approve S. 3941 would, I believe, establish an undesirable precedent, encouraging others to seek relief from laws of general applicability on expired mining claims.

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Memorandum of Disapproval of Bill for the Validation of Certain Mining Claims in Wyoming Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/233039

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