Baker County, OR Mining Claims & Land Ownership Map
Current BLM claim data, land ownership layers, and rockhounding-ready backcountry navigation for Baker County, OR — built for the field.
Baker County, OR Mining Claims & Land Ownership Map
Current BLM claim data, land ownership layers, and rockhounding-ready backcountry navigation for Baker County, OR — built for the field.
Baker County contains a high concentration of historical and active mining claims in Eastern Oregon’s Blue Mountains region. Gold production in the county dates back to the 1861 placer discovery at Griffin Gulch and the establishment of the Auburn mining district. Most public domain lands in the county fall under the jurisdiction of the BLM Vale District and the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest.
The local geology features both alluvial placer deposits and hard-rock lode veins. Dredge tailings line Sumpter Valley, while placer gravels remain along the Powder River, Burnt River, and Connor Creek drainages. In the Elkhorn Ridge and surrounding ranges, Mesozoic granitic intrusions created quartz-vein lode deposits within greenstone and argillite formations, giving rise to hard-rock mining districts like Cracker Creek, Virtue, and Cornucopia.
Prospecting in Baker County requires verifying land status prior to entering the field. Federal public domain lands on BLM and Forest Service territory are generally open to mineral entry unless withdrawn. However, major drainages; including Pine Creek, Eagle Creek, and the upper Burnt River, contain dense clusters of active unpatented placer and lode claims alongside private land parcels.
An active Baker County mining claims map displays live BLM MLRS records over topographic, satellite, and surface management layers. This allows prospectors to verify active claim boundaries, locate open public domain ground, check claim types, and cross-reference township, range, and section coordinates in the field.
2,729
Current / Not-Closed Baker County, OR Claim Records
16,182
Historical Baker County, OR Claims
1,573
Baker County, OR Rockhound Hotspots
20,484
Total Baker County, OR Claims & Hotspots
1,572
Metallic Sites
1
Non-Metallic Sites
Notable finds: Calcium
| Material | Sites Recorded |
|---|---|
| Calcium | 1 |
1,911
Lode Claims
816
Placer Claims
| Claim Type | Current Claims |
|---|---|
| Lode Claims | 1,911 (70.1%) |
| Placer Claims | 816 (29.9%) |
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Save any map area while you have cell service, then navigate active BLM mining claims, surface-management boundaries, and optional layers like elevation contours, roads, and creeks — with zero connectivity out in the field. Offline downloads are included on every paid plan. See plans below →
Official Prospecting Resources for Baker County, OR
What it is: The local county recording office located at the Courthouse in Baker City, OR.
Use case: Recording new mining location notices, filing annual Affidavits of Assessment (Proof of Labor), and researching local county property deeds and recorded mining documents.
What it is: The local Bureau of Land Management field office based in Baker City, OR.
Use case: Local surface management regulations, verifying BLM public domain land availability, and contacting field staff regarding mining activity on Vale District BLM land.
What it is: The official federal Bureau of Land Management Mineral & Land Records System.
Use case: Researching active and closed claim serial numbers in Baker County, verifying claimant records, and submitting federal annual claim maintenance fees online.
Plans
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Single State, Tri-State and All-West all unlock the exact same features — nothing is pay-gated between them, they differ only in how many states you get.
Paid plans renew automatically at the monthly or annual rate you choose until you cancel. Cancel anytime and keep access through the end of your paid period. See our Terms of Use.
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 2,729 current federal mining claim/site records and 16,182 historical claim records from BLM MLRS, plus 1,573 Baker County, OR mineral-occurrence records derived from DOGAMI MILO-4.
A premium map layer of documented mineral occurrences, prospects and mines sourced from DOGAMI MILO-4 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 Oregon, not just Baker County. Other Oregon counties with a dedicated page: Grant County, Jackson County and Josephine County.
Baker County Clerk's Office & Recording Page is Baker County, OR'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: Baker County Clerk's Office & Recording Page · DOGAMI MILO-4
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.