TOWN SITES, PARKS, AND CEMETERIES. Revised Statutes, Sec. 2286-Preemptions by counties for seats of justice... Secs. 2380-2381-Town sites to be reserved by the President. Secs. 2382-2386-Town sites on public lands platted by occupants.. Page. 372 372 372 Secs. 2387-2389 and 2391-2394-Town site entry by town authorities in trust for occupants-Mineral lands.. 374 Act of March 3, 1877 (19 Stat., 392)-Limit of reservations for town sites.. 375 Act of March 3, 1891 (26 Stat.; 1101)-Town sites on mineral lands 377 377 Act of June 27, 1906 (34 Stat., 519)-Disposal-Limitation as to area removed. 378 Act of June 11, 1910 (36 Stat., 465)—Reappraisement of unsold lots-Manner of payment.. 379 ALIENS.-Act of March 2, 1897 (29 Stat., 618)—Town lots or mining claims may be acquired. 379 PARKS AND CEMETERIES.-Act of September 30, 1890 (26 380 Act of March 1, 1907 (34 Stat., 1052)—Religious or fraternal associations or private corporation... 380 CEDED INDIAN LANDS-ARIZONA AND CALIFORNIA. 380 IDAHO.-Act of June 21, 1906 (34 Stat., 337)-Coeur d'Alene 381 MINNESOTA.-Act of February 9, 1903 (32 Stat., 820)-Ceded 381 MONTANA.-Act of April 27, 1904 (33 Stat., 360)-Crow Reser- Act of June 21, 1906 (34 Stat., 354)-Flathead Reservation.... NORTH DAKOTA AND SOUTH DAKOTA.-Act of May 29, 381 382 383 383 383 383 NORTH DAKOTA.-Act of June 1, 1910 (36 Stat., 456)-Fort 384 SOUTH DAKOTA.—Act of March 2, 1907 (34 Stat., 1230)— 385 Act of May 27, 1910 (36 Stat., 441)-Pine Ridge Reservation... WASHINGTON.-Act of March 22, 1906 (34 Stat., 82)-Colville Act of May 29, 1908 (35 Stat., 459)-Spokane Reservation.. 385 386 386 387 387 Preempt i ons by counties for May 26, 1824, 4 S., 50. UNITED STATES REVISED STATUTES. SEC. 2286. There shall be granted to the several counseats of justice. ties 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. Town sites to be reserved by Presi SEC. 2380. The President is authorized to reserve from dent. Mar.3,1863, the public lands, whether surveyed or unsurveyed, town 1877, 19 S., 392. sites on the shores of harbors, at the junction of rivers, important portages, or any natural or prospective centers of population. Reservations to be surveyed into lots. Mar. 3, 1863, 12 S., 754. sites on public 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. Town or city SEC. 2382. In any case in which parties have already lands platted by founded, or may hereafter desire to found, a city or town July 1, 1864, 13 on the public lands, it may be lawful for them to cause occupants. S., 343. 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 Presi dent 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 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. When towns established upon lands, extension Ibid. are not SEC. 2383. When such cities or towns are established upon unsurveyed lands, it may be lawful, after the exten- unsurveyed sion thereto of the public surveys, to adjust the extension limits, how adlimits of the premises according to those lines, where it justed. 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 estab- When transcript maps of lishment of a city or town on the public domain, the towns filed in twelve parties interested refuse or fail to file in the General months, proceedLand-Office a transcript map, with the statement and ings by Secretary testimony called for by the provisions of section twentythree 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. of the Interior. Ibid. where size of vary from general Mar. 3, 1865, 13 lots or town plat rule. 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 im- S., 530. provements, 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 Title to lots subject to mineral rights. Ibid. Entry of town authorities in S., 541; June 23, 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 townlots 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. SEC. 2387. Whenever any portion of the public lands occu- have been or may be settled upon and occupied as a Mar. 2, 1867, 14 town-site, not subject to entry under the agricultural pre1874, 18 8., 254, 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. Entry under preceding section, Ibid. SEC. 2388. The entry of the land provided for in the when to be made. 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 surveyor-general 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 ber of inhabi- its exterior limit be made in conformity to the legal subMar. 2, 1867, 14 divisions of the public lands authorized by law; and S., 541; June 23, where the inhabitants are in number one hundred, and Mar. 3, 1877, 19 less than two hundred, shall embrace not exceeding three Entry in proportion to num tants. 1874, 18 S., 254; S., 392. 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. Certain acts of trustees to be SEC. 2391. Any act of the trustees not made in conformity to the regulations alluded to in section twenty- void. three hundred and eighty-seven shall be void. Mar. 2, 1867, 14 S., 541; June 23, 1874, 18 S., 254. fore-No title ac quired to gold SEC. 2392. No title shall be acquired, under the going provisions of this chapter, to any mine of gold, mine or mining silver, cinnabar, or copper; or to any valid mining-claim or possession held under existing laws. 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 lighthouses, 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. claim. Mar. 2, 1867, 14 S., 541; June $, Military or othMar. 2, 1867, 14 1877, 19 S., 264. er reservations. S., 541; Feb. 28, of towns on public enter. 1874, 18 S., 254. SEC. 2394. The inhabitants of any town located on the Inhabitants public lands may avail themselves, if the town authori- lands, right of, to ties choose to do so, of the provisions of sections twenty-June 8, 1868, 15 three hundred and eighty-seven, twenty-three hundred 567 June 23, and eighty-eight, and twenty-three hundred and eightynine; 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. ACTS OF CONGRESS PASSED SUBSEQUENT TO THE REVISED STATUTES. An Act Respecting the limits of reservations for town sites upon the public domain. land excluded by town site. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That Quantity of the existence or incorporation of any town upon the from preemption public lands of the United States shall not be held to exclude from pre-emption 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. within town sites confirmed. SEC. 2. That where entries have been heretofore al- Certain entries lowed 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 |