43 U.S.C. § 865 — Confirmation of certain lands selected by California
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This section confirms certain California land selections made before July 23, 1866, and sets procedures for selections from surveyed and unsurveyed land. For qualifying State-surveyed land, the selection has the force of a settler’s preemption right from July 23, 1866, when marked off and designated in the field.
California’s selections of public land are confirmed to the State if, before July 23, 1866, no settler had acquired a homestead, preemption, or other right under United States law; the land is not mineral land; it is not reserved for naval, military, or Indian purposes; it is not held or claimed under a valid Mexican or Spanish grant; and it is not within a city, town, village, or San Francisco County. The selections must have been made before July 23, 1866, and the State must have sold the land to bona fide purchasers. California may not receive more land for schools or improvements than the law allows. When such a selection is from land already surveyed by the United States, State authorities must notify the land-office officer designated by the Secretary of the Interior for the district where the land lies, unless they already did so. That notice counts as the date of the State selection. After investigation and decision, the designated land-office officials must, under the Secretary’s or designee’s instructions, send the selections to the Bureau of Land Management. The Secretary or designee must then certify them to California in the usual way. When California selected unsurveyed land, but the State surveyed the selection and sold it in good faith under State law, the selection has, from July 23, 1866, when it was marked off and designated in the field, the same force and effect as a settler’s preemption right on unsurveyed public land. If a later United States survey does not match the State survey, the selection must be changed to include the legal subdivisions that most closely match the exact land included in the State survey and selection. After the township plat containing such an unsurveyed selection is filed with the designated officer of the proper United States land office, the holder of the State title must be allowed the same time that preemptors had under the laws then in force to present and prove the purchase and claim. If the purchase and claim comply with the law, the Secretary of the Interior or designee must certify the land to California.
All selections of any portion of the public domain, to which, prior to July 23, 1866, no homestead, preemption, or other right had been acquired by any settler under the laws of the United States, and not being mineral land, nor reserved for naval, military, or Indian purposes nor held or claimed under any valid Mexican or Spanish grant, and not included within the limits of any city, town, or village or of the county of San Francisco, made prior to the 23d day of July 1866, and theretofore sold to bona fide purchasers by the State of California are confirmed to the State of California: Provided, however, That said State shall not receive any greater quantity of land for school or improvement purposes than she is entitled to by law.
When selections named in the above paragraph have been made upon lands already surveyed by authority of the United States, the authorities of said States, where the same has not been already done, shall notify the officer, as the Secretary of the Interior may designate, of the land office, for the district in which the land is situated, which notice shall be regarded as the date of the State selection; and the said officers, as the Secretary may designate, of the several land offices, after investigation and decision, shall, under the instruction of the Secretary of the Interior, or such officer as he may designate, forward all such selections to the Bureau of Land Management, and the Secretary or such officer shall certify the same over to the State in the usual manner.
When the State of California has made such selections from the lands not surveyed by the authority of the United States, but which selections have been surveyed by the authority of said State, and the land sold to purchasers in good faith, under the laws of the State, such selections, from said 23d of July, 1866, when marked off and designated in the field, shall have the same force and effect as the preemption rights of a settler upon unsurveyed public lands; and if upon a survey of such lands by the United States, the lines of the two surveys shall be found not to agree, the selection shall be so changed as to include those legal subdivisions which nearest conform to the identical land included in the State survey and selection. Upon filing with the officer as the Secretary of the Interior may designate of the proper United States land office of the township plat, in which any such selection of unsurveyed land is located, the holder of the State title shall be allowed the same time to present and prove up his purchase and claim as was allowed preemptors under existing laws, and if found in accordance with the law the land embraced therein shall be certified over to the State by the Secretary of the Interior or such officer as he may designate.
Source credit: (R.S. §§ 2485–2487; 1946 Reorg. Plan No. 3, § 403, eff. July 16, 1946, 11 F.R. 7876, 60 Stat. 1100.)
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