Title 16ConservationRelease 119-73

§123 Settlement, residence, lumbering, or business within park punishable; admission of visitors

Title 16 › Chapter CHAPTER 1— - NATIONAL PARKS, MILITARY PARKS, MONUMENTS, AND SEASHORES › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER XIV— - CRATER LAKE NATIONAL PARK › § 123

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

It is illegal to build a home, start a settlement, cut timber, run a business, or enter Crater Lake National Park for speculative purposes. Anyone who breaks these rules or related rules can be fined up to $500, jailed for up to one year, and must pay for any U.S. property they destroy. The park is open to scientists and visitors under rules made by the Secretary of the Interior. Restaurant and hotel owners may apply to the Secretary for permission to offer entertainment or services inside the park, but only where and how the Secretary allows.

Full Legal Text

Title 16, §123

Conservation — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

It shall be unlawful for any person to establish any settlement or residence within Crater Lake National Park, or to engage in any lumbering, or other enterprise or business occupation therein, or to enter therein for any speculative purpose whatever, and any person violating the provisions of this section or section 121 and 122 of this title, or the rules and regulations established thereunder, shall be punished by a fine of not more than $500, or by imprisonment for not more than one year, and shall further be liable for all destruction of timber or other property of the United States in consequence of any such unlawful act. Crater Lake National Park shall be open, under such regulations as the Secretary of the Interior may prescribe, to all scientists, excursionists, and pleasure seekers. Restaurant and hotel keepers, upon application to the Secretary of the Interior, may be permitted by him to establish places of entertainment within the Crater Lake National Park for the accommodation of visitors, at places and under regulations fixed by the Secretary of the Interior, and not otherwise.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

1976—Pub. L. 94–429 struck out provision that the park be open, under the supervision of the Secretary of the Interior, to the location and working of mining claims.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Mining Rights Existing Prior to 1976 Amendment section 3 of Pub. L. 94–429 provided in part that this section was amended as indicated in order to close area to entry and location under the Mining Law of 1872, subject to valid existing rights.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

16 U.S.C. § 123

Title 16Conservation

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73