§865 Confirmation of certain lands selected by California

Summary

Approves California’s claim to certain public lands it selected before July 23, 1866. The land must not have been already claimed by a settler under U.S. law before that date. It also must not be mineral land, or set aside for naval, military, or Indian use, or held under any valid Mexican or Spanish grant, and it must not lie inside any city, town, village, or the county of San Francisco. California cannot get more land for school or improvement uses than it was legally entitled to. If the land had already been surveyed by the United States, state officials must notify the U.S. land office designated by the Secretary of the Interior; that notice becomes the date of the State selection. The land office will investigate and, under the Secretary’s instructions, send approved selections to the Bureau of Land Management for certification to California. If the land was only surveyed by California and sold in good faith, those marked selections (as of July 23, 1866) are treated like a settler’s claim on unsurveyed land. If a later U.S. survey disagrees, the selection is adjusted to the nearest legal subdivisions that match the State survey. Once the township plat is filed with the proper U.S. land office, the State title holder gets the same time to prove the claim that preemptors had, and if approved the Secretary will certify the land to California.