I've seen these in a number of places in so. Idaho, usually on BLM land. There will be a string of white posts, about 5' tall and spaced maybe 1/4 to 1/2 mile apart. I don't know how far the line goes. They might be on flat ground or sometimes on some pretty steep terrain. They're nothing more than a steel post in the ground with a length of 4" PVC pipe over it. Originally I thought they might be for mining claims but I've never seen any mining activity anywhere near them.

Just a guess, but I'm betting they mark a pipeline Right of Way (ROW).
Could be property boundary.

Good guess.

White posts I instantly thought claim markers, but, just a straight line? BTFOOM

South of you, they're the Nevada state tree...mining claim markers by the bigger companies, but no idea what they are in your neck of the woods.
Mining claims dont have to have any activity near them. Simply someone (company) is claiming the minerals there.

They are mining claims. big mining outfits hire teams to go out and randomly steak out claim in hope of finding valuable minerals sometime in the furture! Seems like the entire state of Nevada is covered with them. Something wrong with this!

You are correct.
Not a fu cking thing wrong with that. Spent 44 years in the industry.

Idaho has nothing on the Campfire when it comes to seeing white posts.

is there a Prince Albert tobacco can at the bottom of each stake?

Mason jar?

Heh

They're often in places where a pipeline is impossible plus there's nothing to flow through one. Some go up hills so steep that you'd need booster pumps all along them. It's all on BLM land, no boundaries out there.

Those are PVC pipes with trees planted inside them to keep the deer from eating the young trees..

I'm not a tree hugger by any means, but after witnessing the destruction left behind buy gold mining here in Nevada, I'd like to see the price of gold at about $15.00 a ton. Modern mining methods lays waste to entire mountain ranges. Some of the best country in the state are left as a giant hole in the ground. What restoration? Post a two bit bond and away they go.

If the pvc is white then they must be racist posts. Right?
Maybe the new social media law will force them to change to Gray pvc...

Old mining methods were ugly, too. We're still fighting pollution from mines from the last 1800's. There are some long abandoned mines in Idaho that are superfund cleanup sites.

This must be it.

probably not as random as they look. maybe placed after some geophysical prospecting.

If you like modern conveinces, then realize the resources that make them possible are a necessity. But yah, big holes are bad.

How long can they sit on a claim without working it? At one time, they had only so many days to start work or it was taken away from them. In Roughing It, Mark Twain has a story about him and 2 partners who had a claim. All 3 thought the others were working it but none of them were and they lost it. The story is possibly fiction but the law wasn't.

About those trees inside PVC pipes. There haven't been trees out there since Noah's flood.

I dont think there is a period to start working it. As long as they pay their yearly assessment, the claims dont expire.
Forget relying on writings from the mid 19th century. One can refer to the 1872 Mining Law and any addendums applied to it since.

Those pipes kill a lot of birds and reptiles in Nevada. The uncapped pipes were outlawed in 1993; whenever I see an uncapped pipe standing, I lay it over.

Mining Claim Markers

That's because deer ate them as soon as they sprouted..

Never been to Nevada? It's the driest and most mountainous state in the lower 48.
You'd be hard pressed to find a tree on some of our mountain ranges.

He might be using a bit of humor....

a forest starts with just one acorn. (if a squirrel don't eat it).

By my place in Florda the USGS Installed white 2 inch PVC markers about 5 feet tall and around a 1/4 mile apart.
They are marking Section lines and enable them to be viewed from the air, 95% of the ones here are in saltwater marsh type areas.
One piece of property I own happens to be on a section line along it's southern boundry, it's also one they marked with the white PVC posts.

This is SOUTHERN Nevada, down Las Vegas way! Used all the tress to make Crap tables!

They are being used in this area to mark fiberoptic cables being installed in rural areas.
Kinda ticks me off that we'll have high-speed internet at the ranch house - and can't get it near town!
The business house sits ON the city limits line !