Title 43Public LandsRelease 119-73

§541 When patent or final certificate issued

Title 43 › Chapter CHAPTER 12— - RECLAMATION AND IRRIGATION OF LANDS BY FEDERAL GOVERNMENT › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER XIV— - PATENTS AND FINAL WATER-RIGHT CERTIFICATES › § 541

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

People who claimed homesteads under the Reclamation Act of June 17, 1902, including on ceded Indian lands, may file proof after meeting the rules for living on, reclaiming, and farming the land. If the proof is accepted, they get a patent. Buyers of water-right certificates on reclamation projects can get a final water-right certificate after showing the required cultivation and reclamation. No patent or final water-right certificate will be issued until all money owed to the United States for the land or water right is paid when the proof is filed.

Full Legal Text

Title 43, §541

Public Lands — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

Any homestead entryman under the Act of June seventeenth, nineteen hundred and two, known as the reclamation Act, including entrymen on ceded Indian lands, may, at any time after having complied with the provisions of law applicable to such lands as to residence reclamation, and cultivation, submit proof of such residence, reclamation, and cultivation, which proof, if found regular and satisfactory, shall entitle the entryman to a patent, and all purchasers of water-right certificates on reclamation projects shall be entitled to a final water-right certificate upon proof of the cultivation and reclamation of the land to which the certificate applies, to the extent required by the reclamation Act for homestead entrymen: Provided, That no such patent or final water-right certificate shall issue until after the payment of all sums due the United States on account of such land or water right at the time of the submission of proof entitling the homestead or desert-land entryman to such patent or the purchaser to such final water-right certificate.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

Act of
June 17, 1902, known as the reclamation Act, referred to in text, is act
June 17, 1902, ch. 1093, 32 Stat. 388, 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.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

43 U.S.C. § 541

Title 43Public Lands

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73