I noticed the BLM has an online mining claim database.
www.blm.gov...
[Incidentally, I could only get it to work in IE, not firefox.]
Digging through Groom Lake history, there were some guys that tried to use a mining claim so that they could "own" Bald Mountain and thus look at
the base. This is all documented in David Darlington's "Dreamland Chronicles", but not with much detail. Basically some Greenpeace activists caught
a glimpse of the F117 in 1983 when doing a protest at the NTS. That brought out investigators which lead to a land grab in 1988.The exact year of the
mining claim isn't documented, but presumably this would be in the range of 1983 to 1988. This is all on page 59 of the book.
Using the BLM report generator, I can only find three mine claims in the area of Bald Mountain. That would be the New Kahama, with claim numbers
140518, 140519, and 140520. They are closed claims, which would make sense. The claims are located in the Mount Diablo meridian (NV21), Township 6
south, range 55 east, section 25. Just my luck the server is now down, but it was reported closed in 1990 IIRC. There are two mines in that section on
the topo map, locations
37.388645; -115.798547
and
37.385255; -115.798161
However, there is a section on the USGS topo map around 37.543827; -115.796616. However, that location is the Mount Diablo meridian (NV21) township 5
south range 55E section 1. No mine claim is located there, but the areas shows up as an unrestricted "hole" in the restricted range.
You can plug these coordiantes into
www.acme.com...
if you don't have any way to view old topo maps.
If you want to look up the meridan township range section nonsense, you can use the geocommunicator. [May the force be with you, since it is a little
tricky.]
www.geocommunicator.gov...
So maybe I cleaned up the documentation in the Dreamland Chronicles, but that hole in the range is still not documented as far as I can tell.