Van Dyke v. Midnight Sun Mining & Ditch Co.

ROSS, Circuit Judge.

The plaintiffs in error are, and have been for a considerable period, the owners of certain placer mining claims on Big Hurrah creek, Alaska, so located as to cross that stream. They allege, and they gave evidence tending to show, that all the water of the creek is necessary for the proper working and developing of their claims. In 1902, after the location of these claims by the plaintiffs in error, the defendant in error posted notices near the creek and filed a claim in the recorder’s office of the district setting forth that it had appropriated all the water of Big…