Custer County, SD Mining Claims & Land Ownership Map
Current BLM claim data, land ownership layers, and rockhounding-ready backcountry navigation for Custer County, SD — built for the field.
Custer County occupies the southern Black Hills of South Dakota, framing a historic mineral landscape that stretches from Custer State Park and Harney Peak down through the French Creek basin and out toward the eastern agate badlands. Celebrated as the birthplace of the 1874 Black Hills gold rush and internationally famous for Fairburn agates, the county attracts gold panners, detectorists, and lapidary collectors.
Public domain lands managed by the Black Hills National Forest (Hell Canyon Ranger District) and the Bureau of Land Management provide extensive territory for backcountry exploration. Geologically, Custer County features a complex Precambrian core of metamorphic schists, quartzites, and granitic pegmatites bounded by uplifted sedimentary hogbacks.
Hydrothermal solutions injected gold-bearing quartz veins into schists along French Creek and Tehama Gulch, while weathering eroded these veins into rich placer gravels. Meanwhile, granitic pegmatites produced fine specimens of rose quartz, beryl, tourmaline, tantalite, and mica. To the east, silica-saturated fluids in limestone and shale formations created world-famous Fairburn agates, prairie agates, and chalcedony geodes.
Navigating Custer County prospecting demands exact spatial awareness. Active unpatented lode and placer claims line primary gold streams and pegmatite dikes, intermingling with private ranches, Custer State Park, and Wind Cave National Park land where collecting is strictly prohibited. Utilizing an active Custer County mining claims map enables prospectors and rockhounds to check live BLM MLRS records, confirm open public domain ground, and explore safely.
2,900
Active Custer County, SD Claims
16,886
Historical Custer County, SD Claims
538
Custer County, SD Rockhound Hotspots
20,324
Total Custer County, SD Claims & Hotspots
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Save any map area while you have cell service, then navigate active BLM mining claims, land ownership 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 Custer County, SD
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Staked Maps isn't crowd-sourced guesswork. Active and historical claim boundaries are parsed directly from the Bureau of Land Management's own MLRS/LR2000 case-recordation system — the same records BLM state offices use internally — 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/LR2000 case-recordation records, synced into our database on a regular schedule — not scraped or crowd-sourced.
Yes. The free tier gives you the interactive claims map, land ownership overlays, and basemap layers for your current state, auto-detected via GPS — no subscription required. Paid plans add more states plus premium data like full legal descriptions, historical claims, offline downloads, and Rockhound Hotspots.
Active claims currently have valid, in-good-standing filings with the BLM. Historical claims are expired or closed filings — still useful for understanding an area's mining history and past activity.
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.
A premium map layer of known mineral and gem collecting sites — sourced from USGS records and labeled by material where available (e.g. turquoise, opal, jasper) — for rockhounds looking for their next find.
Staked Maps currently tracks 2,900 active and 16,886 historical mining claims in Custer County, SD, plus 538 Rockhound Hotspots — synced on a regular schedule directly from the BLM's own MLRS records.
Yes — the live map covers all of South Dakota, not just Custer County. Other South Dakota counties with a dedicated page: Lawrence County, Pennington County and Meade County.
Custer County Register of Deeds Office is Custer County, SD's primary office for filing and researching mining claims — see the Official Filing & Information Links section above for the direct link and more resources.
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.