Jefferson County, MT Mining Claims & Land Ownership Map
Current BLM claim data, land ownership layers, and rockhounding-ready backcountry navigation for Jefferson County, MT — built for the field.
Jefferson County, MT Mining Claims & Land Ownership Map
Current BLM claim data, land ownership layers, and rockhounding-ready backcountry navigation for Jefferson County, MT — built for the field.
Jefferson County encompasses a hyper-mineralized mountainous corridor in Southwest Montana, stretching from the northern slopes of the Boulder Batholith down through the Boulder River valley and Elkhorn Mountains. Centered on historic mining districts like Basin, Clancy, Wickes, and Boulder, this county features an impressive concentration of placer gold, silver-lead lodes, and collectible crystals. Modern prospectors, metal detectorists, and rockhounds explore expansive public domain lands managed by the BLM Butte Field Office and the Beaverhead-Deerlodge and Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forests.
The geology of Jefferson County is anchored by the Cretaceous Boulder Batholith, an expansive granitic intrusion that penetrated Precambrian and Paleozoic host rocks. Hydrothermal fluids injected gold-bearing quartz veins, silver-lead-zinc replacement bodies, and copper lodes throughout fractures and shear zones. Fluvial erosion weathered these hard-rock lodes, sweeping heavy placer gold into the alluvial gravels of Basin Creek, Cataract Creek, and the Boulder River watershed. Beyond gold, rockhounds in Jefferson County discover fine smoky quartz crystals, amethyst, fluorite, galena, and secondary copper minerals like malachite.
Prospecting in Jefferson County demands strict boundary awareness. Dense clusters of active unpatented placer and lode claims line primary mountain drainages and historic mining slopes, closely interlocking with patented historic mine properties and private land. Utilizing an active Jefferson County mining claims map enables panners and detectorists to cross-reference live federal BLM records, verify open public domain land, and navigate backcountry roads legally and safely.
1,240
Current / Not-Closed Jefferson County, MT Claim Records
12,340
Historical Jefferson County, MT Claims
977
Jefferson County, MT Rockhound Hotspots
14,557
Total Jefferson County, MT Claims & Hotspots
960
Metallic Sites
17
Non-Metallic Sites
Notable finds: Quartz · Gemstone · Kyanite · Garnet (abrasive)
Source records sometimes use broad or overlapping commodity labels; counts above preserve the underlying record classifications.
| Material | Sites Recorded |
|---|---|
| Quartz | 9 |
| Gemstone | 3 |
| Kyanite | 2 |
| Abrasive, Garnet | 1 |
1,146
Lode Claims
73
Placer Claims
| Claim Type | Current Claims |
|---|---|
| Lode Claims | 1,146 (94.0%) |
| Placer Claims | 73 (6.0%) |
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Official Prospecting Resources for Jefferson County, MT
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Staked Maps isn't crowd-sourced guesswork. Current and historical claim boundaries are parsed directly from the Bureau of Land Management's Mineral & Land Records System (MLRS), which replaced the legacy LR2000 mining claim system in 2021, and kept in sync with our database on a regular schedule. Rockhound Hotspots draw from the USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS), cross-referenced by material so you can see exactly what's been found at a given site. For legal filings, always confirm current status directly with your BLM state office of record; Staked Maps is a research and navigation tool, not a substitute for the official record.
Directly from the Bureau of Land Management's official MLRS (Mineral & Land Records System) case-recordation records, synced into our database on a regular schedule — not scraped or crowd-sourced.
Staked Maps displays the status reported by BLM. Records with a case disposition of Active are labeled Active; historical records come from BLM's closed-claims dataset. These statuses are research information, not a Staked Maps legal determination of claim validity, discovery, ownership or compliance. Verify the current record through MLRS before acting on it.
Free users can search by county. Paid plans add search by claim serial number, plus each claim's full legal (aliquot) description and BLM records link.
Staked Maps currently tracks 1,240 current federal mining claim/site records and 12,340 historical claim records from BLM MLRS, plus 977 Jefferson County, MT mineral-occurrence records derived from USGS MRDS.
A premium map layer of documented mineral occurrences, prospects and mines sourced from USGS MRDS and labeled by material where available. These records are research leads, not a directory of verified public collecting sites.
Yes — the live map covers all of Montana, not just Jefferson County. Other Montana counties with a dedicated page: Madison County, Granite County, Broadwater County and Lewis & Clark County.
Jefferson County Clerk & Recorder is Jefferson County, MT's primary office for filing and researching mining claims — see the Official Filing & Information Links section above for the direct link and more resources.
Regulatory and editorial content last reviewed against official records · Source: Jefferson County Clerk & Recorder · USGS MRDS
Information hosted on Staked Maps is compiled from publicly available data streams provided by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and relevant state geographic clearinghouses. Staked Maps accepts no liability for the content of this geospatial data, or for the consequences of any real-world exploration, land entry, or staking actions taken on the basis of the information provided via this application interface.
Staked Maps makes no warranty, expressed or implied, including the warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, nor assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the pinpoint accuracy, reliability, completeness, latency, or programmatic utility of these geospatial data layers, or for the improper interpretation of these data grids.
These mapping layers and related graphics are visual convenience aids only; they are not legal documents and must never be used as such. The data may not be used to legally determine title, mineral ownership, valid description boundaries, jurisdictional authorities, or land restrictions in place on public or private land. Natural backcountry hazards may or may not be depicted on topographies, and land users are strictly mandated to exercise caution. Federal records are dynamic and change constantly. The end-user is exclusively responsible for validating current land classifications with local BLM field offices and managing compliance accordingly.