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RECEIVE® HutchinwnBlackandCookuc <br /> Attorneys at Law <br /> NOV 0 32022 Kenneth D.Robinson <br /> DIVISION OF R`X!P%%TION robinson@hbcboulder.com <br /> MINING PNU::-„rtN October 31, 2022 <br /> VIA U.S.MAIL <br /> Pat Farr Laura Engel <br /> K & B Mining, LLC Jeremy Wilkinson <br /> 2601 Willow Park JL Mining Co, LLC <br /> Richland Hills, TX 76118 133 Wallens Place <br /> Black Hawk, CO 80422 <br /> RE: Access Rights Over Property of Eric Harms and Amber Hill <br /> 1029 and 1126 James Canyon Drive, Boulder, CO 80302 <br /> Dear Mr. Farr and Ms. Engel: <br /> This law firm represents Mr. Eric Harms and Ms. Amber Hill ("Clients")relative to an <br /> apparent dispute about your alleged rights to traverse their property located at 1029 and 1126 <br /> James Canyon Drive, Boulder, CO 80302 (the"Property"). I write to advise you of my Clients' <br /> legal position on the issue, and to respond to Jeremy Wilkinson and Pat Farr's recent inquiries to <br /> my Clients. Simply put,based on both the law and the facts,you have no rights to traverse their <br /> property under any legal theory. Here's why. <br /> R.S. 2477 <br /> I am aware that both of you believe that you have some such rights under the federal <br /> statute known as Revised Statute 2477, a/k/a R.S. 2477. However, from Mr. Farr's recent email <br /> to Eric, I think you misunderstand the nature of a"grant"under R.S. 2477. The date you cite— <br /> late 1860s -is no doubt the date the Mining Act of 1866 was enacted. However,that statute, <br /> acting alone, does not effect any grants until a road is actually constructed over federal land that <br /> is "not otherwise reserved." The"reserved"phrase applies to many kinds of reservations such as <br /> Federal Forest Reserves, now known as National Forests. Another reservation is the granting of <br /> a patent for, say, homesteads or mining purposes. Such a patent removes a mining claim from <br /> the public domain and thus renders R.S. 2477 inapposite. <br /> For a mining claim,the effective date of the patent, and thus the date of the reservation, is <br /> the date of the location and thus the date the claim was removed from the federal domain. The <br /> Higbee Placer claim was located in 1873,just six years after the 1866 Mining Act was enacted. <br /> At the time, there were no roads traversing the Higbee Placer Claim per the 1873 Mineral Survey <br /> Plat of the claim. As to your comment about the James Canyon Drive road, that traverse is <br /> allowed only by reason of a negotiated public easement over the claim, not because of any grant <br /> by R.S. 2477. If you check the public record, you will see that that easement is recorded as an <br /> encumbrance on the Property. However,what is now known as USFS Road 287.1 was not <br /> constructed until after 1873, and it also does not qualify as an R.S. 2477 public road. Thus, <br /> MILO <br /> 921 Walnut St.,Suite 200 1 Boulder,CO 80302 1 Tel(303)442-6514 1 Fax(303)442-6593 <br /> www.hbcboulder.com <br />