I took a short walk out in the desert this morning with Penny, who is feeling much better now. We were parked only about a quarter mile from pavement but were the only campers in sight in any direction.

Along the way, my eyes caught sight of something that didn’t quite fit: a white pole coming out of the ground. I walked over to take a look.

A neat white stake near the intersection of two gravel roads out in the desert.

My first thought was “mining claim.” But this one was unusually neat and had a weird, enclosed container on the top.

Someone had made a neat little container and fastened it to the top of the stake.

It was obvious that the container was designed to be opened. So I twisted off the cap. Inside, was a rolled up, folded piece of paper.

Inside the container was a copy of the mining claim form.

As I suspected, the paper was related to a mining claim. It was an actual copy of the claim form the described the claim in detail and provided the name of the claim owner. I had never seen such a document at a claim site before.

I put the paper back into its neat container and capped it tightly.

I picked up a discarded plastic water bottle in our way back to camp.