BLM State Office

A BLM State Office is one of the Bureau of Land Management's twelve state-level offices. For mining claims, the one that matters is the office with jurisdiction over the land. BLM's regulations define "BLM State Office" as the office "listed in § 1821.10 of this chapter having jurisdiction over the land in which the mining claims or sites are situated" (43 CFR 3830.5).

The twelve offices and their states (43 CFR 1821.10)

BLM "operates 12 State Offices each having several subsidiary offices called Field Offices." The regulation lists:

• Alaska State Office: Alaska
• Arizona State Office: Arizona
• California State Office: California
• Colorado State Office (Lakewood)
• Eastern States Office: "Arkansas, Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, and all States east of the Mississippi River"
• Idaho State Office: Idaho
• Montana State Office: "Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota"
• Nevada State Office: Nevada
• New Mexico State Office: "Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas"
• Oregon/Washington State Office: "Oregon and Washington"
• Utah State Office (Salt Lake City)
• Wyoming State Office: "Wyoming and Nebraska"

The official filing office

BLM's brochure "Mining Claims and Sites on Federal Lands" says "THE PROPER BLM STATE OFFICE IS THE ONLY OFFICIAL FILING OFFICE FOR THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT," with one exception: "the BLM district office in Fairbanks, Alaska, which is also a filing office." BLM's regulations also say the Northern District Office in Fairbanks "may also receive and accept documents, filings, and fees for mining claims or sites in Alaska" (43 CFR 3830.5). Most documents may also be filed online through MLRS, but not those needing an original signature, "such as a maintenance fee waiver."

What is filed with the state office

• The notice or certificate of location, within 90 days of location (43 CFR 3833.11(a))
• Annual maintenance fees and waivers, due on or before September 1
• Annual FLPMA documents, due by December 30 (43 CFR 3835.31(a))
• Transfers of interest (43 CFR 3833.32(b))

A mailed document counts as filed if postmarked by the due date and "Received by the appropriate BLM state office" within 15 calendar days after (43 CFR 3830.5).

Not everything goes to the state office

Notices and plans of operations for work on the ground go to "the local BLM office with jurisdiction over the lands involved" (43 CFR 3809.301(a); 43 CFR 3809.401(a)).

Why it matters in mining claim research

BLM's mining claim data notes that mining claim boundaries "as staked and monumented, are found in the accepted Notice/Certificate of Location as part of the official case file, managed by the BLM State Office having jurisdiction over the claim." BLM requires mining claims to be identified only "down to the affected quarter section(s)," and that is what the MLRS research map and public reports "will reflect, most commonly." The case file at the state office is where the staked boundaries are found.