act. On the other hand, I am of the opinion that, if such agreements or arrangements were entered into prior to such locations being made, such locations do not come within the provisions of said act and can not be lawfully passed to entry and patent.

Very respectfully,

The SECRETARY of the INTERIOR.

GEORGE W. WICKERSHAM.

UNITED STATES LAWS RELATING TO TOWN SITES, PARKS, AND

CEMETERIES.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

GENERAL LAND OFFICE,

Washington, D. C., August 7, 1909.

COUNTY-SEAT TOWNSITES.

SEC. 2286. There shall be granted to the several counties or parishes of each State and Territory, where there are public lands, at the minimum price for which public lands of the United States are sold, the right of preemption to one quarter section of land, in each of the counties or parishes, in trust for such counties or parishes, respectively, for the establishment of seats of justice therein; but the proceeds of the sale of each of such quarter sections shall be appropriated for the purpose of erecting public buildings in the county or parish for which it is located, after deducting therefrom the amount originally paid for the same. And the seat of justice for such counties or parishes, respectively, shall be fixed previously to a sale of the adjoining lands within the county or parish for which the same is located.

Act approved May 26, 1824 (4 Stat., 50, sec. 1).

TOWNSITES RESERVED BY PRESIDENT.

SEC. 2380. The President is authorized to reserve from the public lands, whether surveyed or unsurveyed, town sites on the shores of harbors, at the junction of rivers, important portages, or any natural or prospective centers of population.

SEC. 2381. When, in the opinion of the President, the public interests require it, it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Interior to cause any of such reservations, or part thereof, to be surveyed into urban or suburban lots of suitable size, and to fix by appraisement of disinterested persons their cash value, and to offer the same for sale at public outcry to the highest bidder, and thence afterward to be held subject to sale at private entry according to such regulations as the Secretary of the Interior may prescribe; but no lot shall be disposed of at public sale or private entry for less than the appraised value thereof. And all such sales shall be conducted by the register and receiver of the land office in the district in which the reservations may be situated, in accordance with the instructions of the Commissioner of the General Land Office.

Act approved March 3, 1863 (12 Stat., 754).

TOWNSITES PLATTED BY OCCUPANTS.

SEC. 2382. In any case in which parties have already founded, or may hereafter desire to found, a city or town on the public lands, it may be lawful for them to cause to be filed with the recorder for the county in which the same is situated, a plat thereof, for not exceeding six hundred and forty acres, describing its exterior boundaries. according to the lines of the public surveys, where such surveys have been executed; also giving the name of such city or town, and exhibiting the streets, squares, blocks, lots, and alleys, the size of the same, with measurements and area of each municipal subdivision, the lots in which shall each not exceed four thousand two hundred square feet, with a statement of the extent and general character of the improvements; such map and statement to be verified under oath by the party acting for and in behalf of the persons proposing to establish such city or town; and within one month after such filing there shall be transmitted to the General Land-Office a verified transcript of such map and statement, accompanied by the testimony of two witnesses. that such city or town has been established in good faith, and when the premises are within the limits of an organized land district, a similar map and statement shall be filed with the register and receiver, and at any time after the filing of such map, statement, and testimony in the General Land-Office it may be lawful for the President to cause the lots embraced within the limits of such city or town to be offered at public sale to the highest bidder, subject to a minimum of ten dollars for each lot; and such lots as may not be disposed of at public sale shall thereafter be liable to private entry at such minimum, or at such reasonable increase or diminution thereafter as the Secretary of the Interior may order from time to time, after at least three months' notice, in view of the increase or decrease in the value of the municipal property. But any actual settler upon any one lot, as above provided, and upon any additional lot in which he may have substantial improvements shall be entitled to prove up and purchase the same as a preemption, at such minimum, at any time before the day fixed for the public sale.

SEC. 2383. When such cities or towns are established upon unsurveyed lands, it may be lawful, after the extension thereto of the public surveys, to adjust the extension limits of the premises according to those lines, where it can be done without interference with rights which may be vested by sale; and patents for all lots so disposed of at public or private sale shall issue as in ordinary cases.

SEC. 2384. If within twelve months from the establishment of a city or town on the public domain, the parties interested refuse or fail to file in the General Land-Office a transcript map, with the statement and testimony called for by the provisions of section twenty-three hundred and eighty-two, it may be lawful for the Secretary of the Interior to cause a survey and plat to be made of such city or town, and thereafter the lots in the same shall be disposed of as required by such provisions, with this exception, that they shall each be at an increase of fifty per centum on the minimum of ten dollars per lot.

Act approved July 1, 1864 (13 Stat., 343, secs. 2, 3, and 4).

SEC. 2385. In the case of any city or town, in which the lots may be variant as to size from the limitation fixed in section twenty

three hundred and eighty-two, and in which the lots and buildings, as municipal improvements, cover an area greater than six hundred and forty acres, such variance as to size of lots or excess in area shall prove no bar to such city or town claim under the provisions of that section; but the minimum price of each lot in such city or town, which may contain a greater number of square feet than the maximum named in that section, shall be increased to such reasonable amount as the Secretary of the Interior may by rule establish.

SEC. 2386. Where mineral veins are possessed, which possession is recognized by local authority, and to the extent so possessed and recognized, the title to town-lots to be acquired shall be subject to such recognized possession and the necessary use thereof; but nothing contained in this section shall be so construed as to recognize any color of title in possessors for mining purposes as against the United States.

Act approved March 3, 1865 (13 Stat., 530, sec. 2). (See sec. 2392, Rev. Stats., and sec. 16, act of March 3, 1891, 26 Stat., 1101, infra.)

TOWNSITES ENTERED BY CORPORATE AUTHORITIES OR JUDGES OF COUNTY COURTS AS TRUSTEES,

SEC. 2387. Whenever any portion of the public lands have been or may be settled upon and occupied as a town-site, not subject to entry under the agricultural pre-emption laws, it is lawful, in case such town be incorporated, for the corporate authorities thereof, and, if not incorporated, for the judge of the county court for the county in which such town is situated, to enter at the proper land-office, and at the minimum price, the land so settled and occupied in trust for the several use and benefit of the occupants thereof, according to their respective interests; the execution of which trust, as to the disposal of lots in such town, and the proceeds of the sales thereof, to be conducted under such regulations as may be prescribed by the legislative authority of the State or Territory in which the same may be situated.

SEC. 2388. The entry of the land provided for in the preceding section shall be made, or a declaratory statement of the purpose of the inhabitants to enter it as a town-site shall be filed with the register of the proper land-office, prior to the commencement of the public sale of the body of land in which it is included, and the entry or declaratory statement shall include only such land as is actually occupied by the town, and the title to which is in the United States; but in any Territory in which a land-office may not have been established, such declaratory statements may be filed with the surveyorgeneral of the surveying-district in which the lands are situated, who shall transmit the same to the General Land-Office.

SEC. 2389. If upon surveyed lands, the entry shall in its exterior limit be made in conformity to the legal subdivisions of the public. lands authorized by law; and where the inhabitants are in number one hundred, and less than two hundred, shall embrace not exceeding three hundred and twenty acres; and in cases where the inhabitants of such town are more than two hundred, and less than one thousand, shall embrace not exceeding six hundred and forty acres;

and where the number of inhabitants is one thousand and over one thousand, shall embrace not exceeding twelve hundred and eighty acres; but for each additional one thousand inhabitants, not exceeding five thousand in all, a further grant of three hundred and twenty acres shall be allowed.

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SEC. 2391. Any act of the trustees not made in conformity to the regulations alluded to in section twenty-three hundred and eightyseven shall be void.

Act approved March 2, 1867 (14 Stat., 541). (See similar Act approved May 23, 1844, 5 Stat., 657, repealed by Act approved July 1, 1864, 13 Stat., 344, sec. 5.)

Acts approved June 23, 1874 (18 Stat., 254, sec. 3), and March 3, 1877 (19 Stat., 392).

SEC. 2392. No title shall be acquired, under the foregoing provisions of this chapter, to any mine of gold, silver, cinnabar, or copper; or to any valid mining-claim or possession held under existing laws.

Act approved March 2, 1867 (14 Stat., 542), and Act approved June 8, 1868 (15 Stat., 67). (See sec. 2386, Rev. Stats., supra, and sec. 16, Act of March 3, 1891, 26 Stat., 1101, infra.)

SEC. 2393. The provisions of this chapter shall not apply to military or other reservations heretofore made by the United States, nor to reservations for light-houses, custom-houses, mints, or such other public purposes as the interests of the United States may require, whether held under reservations through the Land-Office by title derived from the Crown of Spain, or otherwise.

Act approved March 2, 1867 (14 Stat., 542).

SEC. 2394. The inhabitants of any town located on the public lands may avail themselves, if the town authorities choose to do so, of the provisions of sections twenty-three hundred and eighty-seven, twentythree hundred and eighty-eight, and twenty-three hundred and eighty-nine; and, in addition to the minimum price of the lands embracing any town site so entered, there shall be paid by the parties availing themselves of such provisions all costs of surveying and platting any such town site, and expenses incident thereto incurred by the United States, before any patent issues therefor; but nothing contained in the sections herein cited shall prevent the issuance of patents to persons who have made or may hereafter make entries, and elect to proceed under other laws relative to town-sites in this chapter set forth.

Act approved June 8, 1868 (15 Stat., 67).

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ADDITIONAL TOWNSITES, ETC.

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That the existence or incorporation of any town upon the public lands of the United States shall not be held to exclude from preemption or homestead entry a greater quantity than twenty-five

hundred and sixty acres of land, or the maximum area which may be entered as a town-site under existing laws, unless the entire tract claimed or incorporated as such town-site shall, including and in excess of the area above specified, be actually settled upon, inhabited, improved, and used for business and municipal purposes.

SEC. 2. That where entries have been heretofore allowed upon lands afterwards ascertained to have been embraced in the corporate limits of any town, but which entries are or shall be shown, to the satisfaction of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, to include only vacant unoccupied lands of the United States, not settled upon or used for municipal purposes, nor devoted to any public use of such town, said entries, if regular in all respects, are hereby confirmed and may be carried into patent: Provided, That this confirmation shall not operate to restrict the entry of any townsite to a smaller area than the maximum quantity of land which, by reason of present population, it may be entitled to enter under said section twenty-three hundred and eighty-nine of the Revised Statutes. SEC. 3. That whenever the corporate limits of any town upon the public domain are shown or alleged to include lands in excess of the maximum area specified in section one of this act, the Commissioner of the General Land Office may require the authorities of such town, and it shall be lawful for them, to elect what portion of said lands, in compact form and embracing the actual site of the municipal occupation and improvement, shall be withheld from pre-emption and homestead entry; and thereafter the residue of such lands shall be open to disposal under the homestead and pre-emption laws. And upon default of said town authorities to make such selection within sixty days after notification by the Commissioner, he may direct testimony respecting the actual location and extent of said improvements, to be taken by the register and receiver of the district in which such town may be situated; and, upon receipt of the same, he may determine and set off the proper site according to section one of this act, and declare the remaining lands open to settlement and entry under the homestead and pre-emption laws; and it shall be the duty of the secretary of each of the Territories of the United States to furnish the surveyor-general of the Territory for the use of the United States a copy duly certified of every act of the legislature of the Territory incorporating any city or town, the same to be forwarded by such secretary to the surveyor-general within one month from date of its approval.

SEC. 4. It shall be lawful for any town which has made, or may hereafter make entry of less than the maximum quantity of land named in section twenty-three hundred and eighty-nine of the Revised Statutes to make such additional entry, or entries, of contiguous tracts, which may be occupied for town purposes as when added to the entry or entries theretofore made will not exceed twenty-five hundred and sixty acres. Provided, That such additional entry shall not together with all prior entries be in excess of the area to which the town may be entitled at date of the additional entry by virtue of its population as prescribed in said section twenty-three hundred and eighty-nine.

Act approved March 3, 1877 (19 Stat., 392).