of land by rail

Selection of

sections.

tracts to be deliv

revert to United

States.

Relinquishment lieu of the land relinquished an equal quantity of pubroad and selec- lic lands, surveyed or unsurveyed, not mineral or retion of lieu land. served, and not valuable for stone, iron, or coal, and free from valid adverse claim or not occupied by settlers at the time of such selection, situated within any State or Territory into which such railroad grant extends, and patents shall issue for the land so selected as though it had been originally granted; but all selections odd numbered of unsurveyed lands shall be of odd-numbered sections, to be identified by the survey when made, and patent therefor shall issue to and in the name of the corporation surrendering the lands before mentioned, and such patents shall not issue until after the survey: Provided, however, That the Secretary of the Interior shall from List of settled time to time ascertain and, as soon as conveniently may ered to company. be done, cause to be prepared and delivered to the said railroad grantee or its successor in interest a list or lists of the several tracts which have been purchased or settled upon or occupied as aforesaid, and are now claimed by said purchasers or occupants, their heirs or assigns, according to the smallest Government subdiTitle to relin. Visions; and all right, title, and interest of the said railquished land to road grantee or its successor in interest in and to any of such tracts, which the said railroad grantee or its successor in interest may relinquish hereunder shall revert to the United States, and such tracts shall be treated, under the laws thereof, in the same manner as if no rights thereto had ever vested in the said railroad Settlers to grantee, and all qualified persons who have occupied and may be on said lands as herein provided, or who have purchased said lands in good faith as aforesaid, their heirs and assigns, shall be permitted to prove their titles to said lands according to law, as if said grant had never been made; and upon such relinquishment said Northern Pacific Railroad Company or its lawful successor in interest may proceed to select, in the manner hereinbefore provided, lands in lieu of those relinquished, and patents shall issue therefor: Provided further, That the railroad grantee or its successor in interest shall accept the said list or lists so to be made by the Secretary of the Interior as conclusive with respect to the particular lands to be relinquished by it, but it shall not be bound to relinquish lands sold or contracted by it or lands which it uses or needs for railroad purposes, or lands valuable for stone, iron, or coal: And provided further, That whenever any qualified settler shall in good faith make settlement in pursuance of existing law upon any odd-numbered sections of unsurveyed public lands within the said railroad grant to which the right of such railroad grantee or its successor in interest has attached, then upon proof thereof satisfactory to the Secretary of the Interior, and a due relinquishment of the prior railroad right, other lands

prove title.

Selection of lieu lands.

Lists, force of.

Settlements in good faith.

Northern Pa

cific

cessor of Northern

Transfer of set

lands.

may be selected in lieu thereof by said railroad grantee or its successor in interest, as hereinbefore provided, and patents shall issue therefor: And provided further, That cine Railway not nothing herein contained shall be construed as intended recognized as sucor having the effect to recognize the Northern Pacific Pacific Railroad. Railway Company as the lawful successor of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company in the ownership of the lands granted by the United States to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, under and by virtue of foreclosure proceedings against said Northern Pacific Railroad Company in the courts of the United States, but the legal question whether the said Northern Pacific Railway Company is such lawful successor of the said Northern Pacific Railroad Company, should the question be raised, shall be determined wholly without reference to the provisions of this Act, and nothing in this Act shall be construed as enlarging the quantity of land which the said Northern Pacific Railroad Company is entitled to under laws heretofore enacted: And provided further, the claims and That all qualified settlers, their heirs or assigns, who, selection of lieu prior to January first, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, purchased or settled upon or claimed in good faith, under color of title or claim of right under any law of the United States or any ruling of the Interior Department, any part of an odd-numbered section in either the granted or indemnity limits of the land grant to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company to which the right of such grantee or its lawful successor is claimed to have attached by definite location or selection, may in lieu thereof transfer their claims to an equal quantity of public lands surveyed or unsurveyed, not mineral or reserved, and not valuable for stone, iron, or coal, and free from valid adverse claim, or not occupied by a settler at the time of such entry, situated in any State or Teritory into which such railroad grant extends, and make proof there for as in other cases provided; and in making such proof, credit shall be given for etc. the period of their bona fide residence and amount of their improvements upon their respective claims in the said granted or indemnity limits of the land grant to the said Northern Pacific Railroad Company the same as if made upon the tract to which the transfer is made; and before the Secretary of the Interior shall cause to be prepared and delivered to said railroad grantee or its successor in interest any list or lists of the several tracts which have been purchased or settled upon or occupied as hereinbefore provided, he shall notify the purchaser, settler, or claim-Notice to setant, his heirs or assigns, claiming against said railroad company, of his right to transfer his entry or claim, as herein provided, and shall give him or them option to take lieu lands for those claimed by him or them or hold his claim and allow the said railroad company to do so under the terms of this Act.10

10 See the acts of Mar. 2, 1901, May 17, 1906, and Feb. 27, 1917.

Proofs, credits,

tler.

An Act To set aside a portion of certain lands in the State of Washington, now known as the Pacific Forest Reserve, as a public park, to be known as the Mount Ranier National Park.

Grant of land

to Northern Pa

exchange for land relinquished.

SEC. 3. That upon execution and filing with the Seccific Railroad in retary of the Interior, by the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, of proper deed releasing and conveying to the United States the lands in the reservation hereby created, also the lands in the Pacific Forest Reserve which have been heretofore granted by the United States to said company, whether surveyed or unsurveyed, and which lie opposite said company's constructed road, said company is hereby authorized to select an equal quantity of nonmineral public lands, so classified as nonmineral at the time of actual Government survey, which has been or shall be made, of the United States not reserved and to which no adverse right or claim shall have attached or have been initiated at the time of the making of such selection, lying within any State into or through which the railroad of said Northern Pacific Railroad Company runs, to the extent of the lands so relinquished and reLieu lands to leased to the United States: Provided, That any settlers on lands in said national park may relinquish their rights thereto and take other public lands in lieu thereof, to the same extent and under the same limitations and conditions as are provided by law for forest reserves and national parks.

settlers.

Patent.

selection list of

SEC. 4. That upon the filing by the said railroad company at the local land office of the land district in which any tract of land selected and the payment of the fees prescribed by law in analogous cases, and the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, he shall cause to be executed, in due form of law, and deliver to said company, a patent of the United States conveying to it the Description in lands so selected. In case the tract so selected shall at unsurveyed land. the time of selection be unsurveyed, the list filed by the company at the local land office shall describe such tract in such manner as to designate the same with a reasonable degree of certainty; and within the period of three months after the lands including such tract shall have been surveyed and the plats thereof filed by said local land office, a new selection list shall be filed by said company, describing such tract according to such survey; and in case such tract, as originally selected and described in the list filed in the local land office, shall not precisely conform with the lines of the official survey, the said company shall be permitted to describe such tract anew, so as to secure such conformity.

Mineral-land laws extended to park.

SEC. 5. That the mineral-land laws of the United States are hereby extended to the lands lying within said reserve and said park.

Approved, March 2, 1899 (30 Stat. 993).

An Act For the relief of settlers under the public-land laws to lands within the indemnity limits of the grant to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company.

ment of claims

of the grant ex

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the provisions of the Act of July first, eight- Plan for adjusteen hundred and ninety-eight, appearing in Thirtieth within the inStatutes at Large, at pages six hundred and twenty, six demnity limits hundred and twenty-one, and six hundred and twenty- tended. two, providing a plan for the adjustment by the Land Department of conflicting claims to lands within the limits of the grant to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, are hereby extended and made applicable to all instances where lands in odd-numbered sections within the indemnity limits of the grant to said company were patented to settlers under the public-land laws in pursuance of applications presented to or proceedings initiated in, the local land office at a time when the land was embraced in a pending indemnity selection made by said company in conformity with the regulations of the Land Department, which indemnity selection has not since been waived or abandoned.

Approved, March 2, 1901 (31 Stat. 950).

An Act For the relief of certain entrymen and settlers within the limits of the Northern Pacific Railway land grant.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the provisions of the Act of July first, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight (Thirtieth Statutes, pages five hundred and ninety-seven and six hundred and twenty), which provided for the adjustment by the Land Department of conflicting claims to lands within the limits of the grant to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, and also the provisions of the Act of March second, nineteen hundred and one, entitled "An Act for the relief of settlers under the public land laws to lands within the indemnity limits of the grant to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company," be, and they hereby are, extended to include any bona fide settlement or entry made subsequent to January first, eighteen hundred and ninetyeight, and prior to May thirty-first, nineteen hundred and five, in accordance with the erroneous decision of the Land Department respecting the withdrawal on general route of the Northern Pacific Railroad between Wallula, Washington, and Portland, Oregon, where the same has not since been abandoned: Provided, That all lieu selections made under this Act shall be confined to lands within the State where the private holdings are situated. SEC. 2. That this Act shall become effective upon an acceptance thereof by the Northern Pacific Railway Company being filed with the Secretary of the Interior.

Approved, May 17, 1906 (34 Stat. 197).

Northern Pacific Railway.

Relief of setgranted to.

tlers on lands

Provisions ex

tended.

Lieu land selections.

Effect.

Northern

Washington.

Pa

tlers on unsur

An Act For the relief of settlers on unsurveyed railroad lands.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assemcific land grants, bled, That where, prior to July first, nineteen hundred and thirteen, the whole or any part of an odd-numbered section within the primary limits of the land grant to the Northern Pacific Railway Company, within the State of Rights of set- Washington, to which the right of the grantee or its lawveyed lands. ful successor is claimed to have attached by definite location, has been settled upon in good faith while unsurveyed, by any qualified settler, the same shall be subject to all the provisions of the Act of July first, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight (Thirtieth Statutes at Large, pages six hundred and twenty to six hundred and twentytwo), relating to lands in said primary limits so settled upon prior to January first, eighteen hundred and ninetyeight, and said Act is hereby amended accordingly: Lieu lands to Provided, That upon the relinquishment by said railway company of any of the lands so settled upon the selection of any lieu lands of approximately equal value by said company shall be confined to the State of Washington. Approved, February 27, 1917 (39 Stat. 946).

railway company.

cific land grants.

reservation, Mon

linquished by

thereon.

An Act For the relief of settlers on certain railroad lands in Montana.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assemNorthern Pa bled, That in the adjustment of the grants to the NorthLands of, in ern Pacific Railroad Company, if any of the lands within former Indian the indemnity limits of said grants through that portion tana, may be re of the former reservation for the Gros Ventre, Piegan, company to ac- Blood, Blackfoot, and River Crow Indians lying south tual settlers of the Missouri River in the State of Montana be found in possession of an actual bona fide qualified settler under the homestead laws of the United States who has made substantial improvements thereon and such land has been adjudged by the Secretary of the Interior to inure to the Northern Pacific Railway Company under Indemnity lands the grants made to its predecessors in interest, the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, the Northern Pacific Railway Company upon request of the Secretary of the Interior may file a relinquishment of said lands in favor of the settler and shall then be entitled to select an equal quantity of other lands in lieu thereof from any of the surveyed public lands within the State of Montana, not mineral and not otherwise appropriated at the date of selection, to which it shall receive title the same as though Restricted pat originally granted: Provided, however, That lands withdrawn or classified as coal lands may be selected by said company, and as to such lands it shall receive a restricted patent as provided by the Act of June twenty-second, nineteen hundred and ten.

to company.

ent for coal lands.

Approved, February 28, 1919 (40 Stat. 1204).