§448 — Title 43 Public Lands | U.S. Code

Summary

If a person with a desert-land claim is stopped or delayed from improving or reclaiming their land because the land lies inside a government withdrawal or an irrigation project under the Act of June 17, 1902, the time they are blocked does not count against the deadline for making the needed improvements. If the government abandons the irrigation project after investigation, the clock for compliance starts when the government notifies the claimant and returns the land to the public, and the claimant gets credit for verified expenses and work already done. If the project is finished and water becomes available, the claimant must follow the 1902 Act rules, must give up all land over one farm unit within a reasonable time set by the Secretary of the Interior (but not less than two years after notice), and may make final proof and get a patent on the retained farm unit only by meeting the Secretary’s regulations and the payment terms in the 1902 Act. A claimant who already owns a water right and reclaims the land does not have to accept the reclamation Act’s conditions.

Title 43, §448

Public Lands — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

Where any bona fide desert-land entry has been or may be embraced within the exterior limits of any land withdrawal or irrigation project under the Act of June 17, 1902, and the desert-land entryman has been or may be directly or indirectly hindered, delayed, or prevented from making improvements or from reclaiming the land embraced in any such entry by reason of such land withdrawal or irrigation project, the time during which the desert-land entryman has been or may be so hindered, delayed, or prevented from complying with the desert-land law shall not be computed in determining the time within which such entryman has been or may be required to make improvements or reclaim the land embraced within any such desert-land entry: Provided, That if after investigation the irrigation project has been or may be abandoned by the Government, time for compliance with the desert-land law by any such entryman shall begin to run from the date of notice of such abandonment of the project and the restoration to the public domain of the lands withdrawn in connection therewith, and credit shall be allowed for all expenditures and improvements theretofore made on any such desert-land entry of which proof has been or may be filed; but if the reclamation project is carried to completion so as to make available a water supply for the land embraced in any such desert-land entry the entryman shall thereupon comply with all the provisions of the aforesaid action 11 So in original. Probably should be “Act”. of June 17, 1902, and shall relinquish within a reasonable time after notice as the Secretary may prescribe and not less than two years all land embraced within his desert-land entry in excess of one farm unit, as determined by the Secretary of the Interior, and as to such retained farm unit he shall be entitled to make final proof and obtain patent upon compliance with the regulations of said Secretary applicable to the remainder of the irrigable land of the project and with the terms of payment prescribed in said Act of June 17, 1902, and not otherwise. But nothing herein contained shall be held to require a desert-land entryman who owns a water right and reclaims the land embraced in his entry to accept the conditions of said reclamation Act.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

Act of

June 17, 1902, and said reclamation Act, referred to in text, are act

June 17, 1902, ch. 1093, 32 Stat. 388, popularly known as the Reclamation Act, which is classified generally to this chapter. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see

Short Title

note set out under section 371 of this title and Tables.

Amendments

1930—Act June 6, 1930, among other changes, inserted “within a reasonable time after notice as the Secretary may prescribe and not less than two years”, “

Regulations

of said Secretary applicable to the remainder of the irrigable land of the project”, and substituted provisions specifying one farm unit, as determined by the Secretary of the Interior for provisions specifying 160 acres.

§448 Desert-land entries within reclamation project generally