Longmont Rockhounding Club

Northwest District Office
455 Emerson Street, Craig, CO 81625
Phone: 970-826-5000

Rocky Mountain District Office
3028 E. Main St, Canon City, CO 81212
Phone: 719-269-8500

Southwest District Office
2465 S. Townsend Ave, Montrose, CO 81401
Phone: 970-240-5300

Uncompahgre Field Office (listed under the same Montrose address)
2465 S. Townsend Ave, Montrose, CO 81401
Phone: 970-240-5300

Upper Colorado River District Office
2815 H Road, Grand Junction, CO 81506
Phone: 970-244-3000

Colorado State Office (state-level office)
PO Box 151029, Denver Federal Center – Building 40, Lakewood, CO 80225
Phone: 303-239-3600

FIELD OFFICES

Colorado River Valley Field Office — 2300 River Frontage Road, Silt, CO 81652 — 978-876-9000

Grand Junction Field Office — 2815 H Road, Grand Junction, CO 81506 — 970-244-3000

Gunnison Field Office — 2500 E. New York Ave, Gunnison, CO 81230 — 970-642-4940

Kremmling Field Office — 2103 E. Park Ave (PO Box 68), Kremmling, CO 80459 — 970-724-3000

Little Snake Field Office — 455 Emerson St, Craig, CO 81625 — 970-826-5000

Royal Gorge Field Office — 3028 E. Main St, Canon City, CO 81212 — 719-269-8500

San Luis Valley Field Office — 1313 E. Highway 160, Monte Vista, CO 81144 — 719-852-7074

Tres Rios Field Office — 29211 Highway 184, Dolores, CO 81323 — 970-882-7296

Uncompahgre Field Office — 2465 S. Townsend Ave, Montrose, CO 81401 — 970-240-5300

White River Field Office — 220 E. Market St, Meeker, CO 81641 — 970-878-3800

The BLM is the main federal agency for information about mining claims on federal land. It can help you with:

Claim records: Claim names, serial numbers, location documents, amendments, transfers, and maintenance filings.

Land status: Whether a parcel is federal land and whether it is open or withdrawn from mineral entry.
Claim maps and locations: Approximate claim boundaries and whether other claims are recorded in the area.

Filing requirements: Required forms, deadlines, recording steps, and federal fees.

Maintenance: Annual maintenance fees, small-miner waivers, and required filings.

Mineral classifications: General guidance on whether a mineral may qualify as locatable, salable, or leasable.

Surface operations: Whether proposed exploration or mining activity requires a Notice, Plan of Operations, bonding, environmental review, or reclamation.

Public-land restrictions: Closures, withdrawals, wilderness restrictions, land-use plans, and other limitations.

For research, give the BLM office the state, county, claim name or serial number, legal description, and GPS coordinates. You can also search federal mining-claim records through the BLM’s Mineral & Land Records System.

The BLM generally cannot:

Locate a claim for you.
Guarantee that a claim is valid merely because it appears in the records.
Resolve boundary disputes or private title disputes.
Authorize collecting on private or patented land.
Replace the county recorder for state-required claim recording.
For an existing claim, ask the BLM to help you determine whether it appears to be active in federal records, but remember that validity can also depend on the physical discovery, boundary monuments, state-law compliance, and actual use of the claim. For planned digging or mining, contact the relevant BLM field office before disturbing the surface.

Other sources of information:

BLM Mineral & Land Records System (MLRS) — https://mlrs.blm.gov
This is the primary federal database for mining-claim records. Search by claim name, serial number, claimant, state, county, or map location. You can look for the claim’s status, filings, maintenance information, and related case records. The BLM’s public reports system also provides mining-claim reports and Serial Register Pages.

The county clerk and recorder’s official records website for the county where the claim is located.
Search for the recorded location certificate, amendments, transfers, affidavits of annual assessment, and other documents. The county records are especially important because state law usually controls how a claim is physically located and recorded.

For a claim on National Forest land, use MLRS for the federal mineral-claim record and the county recorder for recorded documents. Then contact the local Forest Service ranger district for surface-use plans, operating authorizations, closures, fences, and access restrictions. The BLM manages the subsurface and claim records, while the Forest Service manages the National Forest surface.
Bureau of Land Management

If you are researching a Colorado claim, start with the BLM Colorado mining-claims page and the official clerk-and-recorder website for the relevant county. A claim appearing in MLRS does not, by itself, guarantee that the claim is legally valid or that its boundaries are accurate.