43 C.F.R. § 2625.0-3 Authority

• Library: Code of Federal Regulations
• Edition: 2023
• Currency: Current through December 31, 2023
• Citation: 43 C.F.R. § 2625.0-3
• Year: 2023

(a) Circular dated Mar. 17, 1896, containing the swamp-land laws and regulations, states:

As soon as practicable after the passage of the swamp-land grant of September 28, 1850, viz, on the 21st of November 1850, the commissioner transmitted to the governors of the respective States to which the grant applied copies of office circular setting forth the provisions of said Act, giving instructions thereunder, and allowing the States to elect which of two methods they would adopt for the purpose of designating the swamp lands viz:

1. The field notes of Government survey could be taken as the basis for selections, and all lands shown by them to be swamp or overflowed, within the meaning of the act, which were otherwise vacant and unappropriated September 28, 1850, would pass to the States.

2. The States could select the lands by their own agents and report the same to the United States surveyor general with proof as to the character of the same The following States elected to make the field notes of survey the basis for determining what lands passed to them under the grant viz: Louisiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Later the State of Minnesota adopted this method of settlement. The authorities of the following States elected to make their selections by their own agents and present proof that the lands selected were of the character contemplated by the swamp grant, viz: Alabama, Arkansas Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio. Later Oregon adopted this method. The States of Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Mississippi and Ohio adopted the second method at the beginning, but they changed to the first method, i.e., to the field notes of survey, as a basis of settlement, in recent years. The authorities of California did not adopt either method, and the passage of the Act of July 23, 1866, rendered such action on their part unnecessary. In Louisiana the selections under the grant of March 2, 1849, forming the bulk of the selections in said State, are made in accordance with the terms of said act by deputy surveyors, under the direction of the United States surveyor general, at the expense of the State.

(b) The grant...