SHAMBIP MINING DISTRICT (1870-1873). RECORDER Agency History
#3146 On 11 July 1870 miners in the St. John precinct of Tooele
County met to organize the Shambip Mining District. Boundaries
for the district extended from the school house, where they met,
north to the summit of the dividing ridge of Grantsville Pass,
west across the mountains between Rush and Skull Valleys, south
following the base of the Skull Valley side to a point east of
Look Out Station, then east to a point east of the old Faust
Station. According to established precedent, which was later
validated when Congress passed a federal mining law, mineral
deposits in the public domain were free and open to exploration,
and locators of the same had exclusive right of possession. In
local areas miners organized mining districts and elected
district recorders to oversee mining operations and keep records
of claims. (Statutes at Large, Treaties, and Proclamations, of
the United States of America, vol. 15, 1872, chap. 152). The
1870s was a boom period