'lay claim to' and 'stake a claim to'

[kjc0123]

What is the difference in meaning between 'lay claim to' and 'stake a claim to' in the following sentences and What is the reason that after 'lay' there is no "a" but after stake there is "a"? 

1. Cattle ranchers, taking advantage of the enormous grasslands, had laid claim to the huge expanse stretching from Texas to the upper Missouri River.

2. Both sides were staking a claim to the land

 

[Quizmonster]

The verb 'lay' has been used with 'claim' for centuries. You might read, for example, that Bonnie Prince Charlie "laid claim to" the British throne." So, to 'lay a claim' means that you state that something is yours by right. In your example, that's exactly what the cattle ranchers did.

The other version, 'stake a claim', comes from mining. In the Californian gold rush, for example, miners would arrive in the gold-fields and drive wooden stakes into the ground, each joined to the next with string or tape, to mark the boundaries of the piece of land they took to be theirs.