RAILROAD GRANTS, SELECTIONS, RIGHTS OF WAY, AND FORFEITURES. Page. 163, 296 See "Lieu Selections;" also "Rights of Way" Act of July 2, 1864 (13 Stat., 356) Limits of grant extended- Atlantic & Pacific and Southern Pacific Railroads.-Act of Act of March 3, 1871 (16 Stat., 579)-Similar rights granted the 217 220 221 224 225 226 229 230 Act of July 6, 1886 (24 Stat., 123)-Forfeiture of grant adjacent 230 Act of March 3, 1897 (29 Stat., 622)-Right of purchasers under Act of June 27, 1902 (32 Stat., 405)—Authorized to sell or lease.. 231 231 231 Act of June 25, 1868 (15 Stat., 80)-Time for completion ex- 235 Act of April 10, 1869 (16 Stat., 47)-Railroad allowed one year Act of January 13, 1881 (21 Stat., 315)-Settlers not qualified to Act of May 6, 1886 (24 Stat., 22)-Patents to issue to settlers.... 235 236 236 237 238 239 239 240 240 243 Forfeiture of unearned grants.-Act of September 29, 1890 (26 Page. Act of February 18, 1891 (26 Stat., 764)-Extension of time for Act of March 2, 1889 (25 Stat., 854)-Price of forfeited railroad 243 246 246 246 247 248 Numerous grants of public lands have been made by Congress for the purpose of aiding in the construction of railroads. The most of these grants have been adjusted and closed, or practically so. The principal acts, or parts thereof, donating lands for this purpose, which are of any special importance at the present time, are given on the following pages in connection with other laws relating to the subject. UNION PACIFIC AND CENTRAL PACIFIC RAIL- An Act To aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean, and to secure to the Government the use of the same for postal, military and other purposes. ration. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives Pacific railroad. of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That [certain persons mentioned] are hereby created and erected into a body corporate and politic in deed and in law, by the name, style, and title of "The Union Pacific Name of corpoRailroad Company;" and by that name shall have perpetual succession, and shall be able to sue and to be sued, plead and be impleaded, defend and be defended, in all courts of law and equity within the United States, and may make and have a common seal; and the said corpo- Common seal. ration is hereby authorized and empowered to lay out, locate, construct, furnish, maintain, and enjoy a continuous railroad and telegraph, with the appurtenances, Railroad from a point on the one hundredth meridian of longitude west from Greenwich, between the south margin of the valley of the Republican River and the north margin of the valley of the Platte River, in the Territory of Nebraska, to the western boundary of Nevada Territory, upon the route and terms hereinafter provided, and is hereby vested with all the powers, privileges, and immunities necessary to carry into effect the purposes of this act as herein set forth. * * * * and SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the right of way Right of way. through the public lands be, and the same is hereby, granted to said company for the construction of said railroad and telegraph line; and the right, power, and authority is hereby given to said company to take from the Materials. public lands adjacent to the line of said road, earth, stone, timber, and other materials for the construction thereof; said right of way is granted to said railroad to the extent of two hundred feet in width on each side of said railroad where it may pass over the public lands, including all necessary grounds for stations, buildings, workshops, and depots, machine shops, switches, side tracks, turntables, Indian titles to and water stations. The United States shall extinguish as rapidly as may be the Indian titles to all lands falling under the operation of this act and required for the said right of way and grants hereinafter made. be extinguished. Alternate Sections of land pany. SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That there be, and is granted to com- hereby, granted to said company, for the purpose of aiding in the construction of said railroad and telegraph line, and to secure the safe and speedy transportation of the mails, troops, munitions of war, and public stores thereon, every alternate section of public land, designated by odd numbers, to the amount of five alternate sections per mile on each side of said railroad, on the line thereof, and within the limits of ten miles on each side of said road, not sold, reserved, or otherwise disposed of by the United States, and to which a preemption or homestead claim may not have attached, at the time the line of said road Mineral lands. is definitely fixed: Provided, That all mineral lands shall be excepted from the operation of this act; but where the same shall contain timber, the timber thereon is hereby when granted to said company. And all such lands, so granted by this section, which shall not be sold or disposed of by said company within three years after the entire road shall have been completed, shall be subject to settlement and preemption, like other lands, at a price not exceeding one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, to be paid to said company. Timber. Lands, subject to settlement, etc. Patents for lands, when and how to issue. SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That whenever said company shall have completed forty consecutive miles of any portion of said railroad and telegraph line, ready for the service contemplated by this act, and supplied with all necessary drains, culverts, viaducts, crossings, sidings, bridges, turnouts, watering places, depots, equipments, furniture, and all other appurtenances of a first class railroad, the rails and all the other iron used in the construction and equipment of said road to be American manufacture of the best quality, the President of the United Commissioners. States shall appoint three commissioners to examine the same and report to him in relation thereto; and if it shall appear to him that forty consecutive miles of said railroad and telegraph line have been completed and equipped in all respects as required by this act, then, upon certificate of said commissioners to that effect, patents shall issue conveying the right and title to said lands to said company, on each side of the road as far as the same is completed, to the amount aforesaid; and patents shall in like manner issue as each forty miles of said railroad and telegraph line are completed, upon certificate of said com render statement on oath. missioners. Any vacancies occurring in said board of commissioners by death, resignation, or otherwise, shall be filled by the President of the United States: Provided, Company to however, That no such commissioners shall be appointed by the President of the United States unless there shall be presented to him a statement, verified on oath by the president of said company, that such forty miles have been completed, in the manner required by this act, and setting forth with certainty the points where such forty miles begin and where the same end; which oath shall be taken before a judge of a court of record. * * * * assent. Το road. complete General route SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That said company Company to file shall file their assent to this act, under the seal of said company, in the Department of the Interior, within one year after the passage of this act, and shall complete said To railroad and telegraph from the point of beginning as herein provided, to the western boundary of Nevada Territory before the first day of July, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-four: Provided, That within two years after the passage of this act said company shall designate the general route of said road, as near as may to be designated be, and shall file a map of the same in the Department of in two years. the Interior, whereupon the Secretary of the Interior Map to be filed. shall cause the lands within fifteen miles of said designated route or routes to be withdrawn from preemption, private entry, and sale; and when any portion of said route shall be finally located, the Secretary of the Interior shall cause the said lands hereinbefore granted to be surveyed and set off as fast as may be necessary for the purposes herein named: Provided, That in fixing the point of connection of the main trunk with the eastern connections, it shall be fixed at the most practicable point for the construction of the Iowa and Missouri branches, as hereinafter provided. * Point of junction. Railroad Com struct railroad telegraph SEC. 9. * * The Central Pacific Railroad Com-Central Pacific pany of California, a corporation existing under the laws pany may conof the State of California, are hereby authorized to con- and struct a railroad and telegraph line from the Pacific coast, line. at or near San Francisco, or the navigable waters of the Sacramento River, to the eastern boundary of California, upon the same terms and conditions, in all respects, as are contained in this act for the construction of said railroad and telegraph line first mentioned, and to meet and connect with the first mentioned railroad and telegraph line on the eastern boundary of California. Each of said companies shall file their acceptance of the conditions of this act in the Department of the Interior within six this act. months after the passage of this act. Companies to file acceptance of Central Pacific may continue construction. Amendments of act of July 1, 1862. not to include coal and iron. SEC. 10. * * and in case said first-named company shall complete their line to the eastern boundary of California before it is completed across said State by the Central Pacific Railroad Company of California, said firstnamed company is hereby authorized to continue in constructing the same through California, with the consent of said State, upon the terms mentioned in this act, until said roads shall meet and connect, and the whole line of said railroad and telegraph is completed; and the Central Pacific Railroad Company of California, after completing its road across said State, is authorized to continue the construction of said railroad and telegraph through the Territories of the United States to the Missouri River, including the branch roads, specified in this act, upon the routes hereinbefore and hereinafter indicated, on the terms and conditions provided in this act in relation to the said Union Pacific Railroad Company, until said roads shall meet and connect, and the whole line of said railroad and branches and telegraph is completed. Approved, July 1, 1862 (12 Stat., 489). An Act To amend an act entitled "An act to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean, and to secure to the Government the use of the same for postal, military, and other purposes," approved July first, eighteen hundred and sixty-two. SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That section three of said act be hereby amended by striking out the word "five," where the same occurs in said section, and by inserting in lieu thereof the word "ten;" and by striking out the word "ten," where the same occurs in said section, and by inserting in lieu thereof the word "twenty. And section seven of said act is hereby amended by striking out the word "fifteen," where the same occurs in said section, and inserting in lieu thereof the word Mineral land "twenty-five." And the term "mineral land," wherever the same occurs in this act, and the act to which this is an amendment, shall not be construed to include coal and iron land. And any lands granted by this act, or the act to which this is an amendment, shall not defeat or impair Preemption, any preemption, homestead, swamp land, or other lawful homestead, etc., rights not claim, nor include any government reservation or mineral affected. lands, or the improvements of any bona fide settler, on any lands returned and denominated as mineral lands, and the timber necessary to support his said improvements as a miner, or agriculturist, to be ascertained under such rules as have been or may be established by the commissioner of the general land-office, in conformity ex with the provisions of the preemption laws: Provided, That the quantity thus exempted by the operation of this act, and the act to which this act is an amendment, shall not exceed one hundred and sixty acres for each settler Limit to emption. |