Title 16, ConservationRelease 119-102

§495 Leases of Lands for Sanitariums or Hotels

Title 16 › CHAPTER 2 — NATIONAL FORESTS › SUBCHAPTER I — ESTABLISHMENT AND ADMINISTRATION › § 495

Last updated Aug 21, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Secretary of Agriculture may rent or lease parts of land near mineral, medicinal, or other springs in any current or future national forest to responsible people or companies who want to build sanitariums or hotels open to the public. He can also make rules about where visitors may set up tents or temporary dwellings at those springs. He decides the lease terms, how long they last, and the fees to be paid.

Full Legal Text

Title 16, §495

Conservation, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

The Secretary of Agriculture is authorized, under such rules and regulations as he from time to time may make, to rent or lease to responsible persons or corporations applying therefor suitable spaces and portions of ground near, or adjacent to, mineral, medicinal, or other springs, within any national forest established within the United States, or hereafter to be established, and where the public is accustomed or desires to frequent, for health or pleasure, for the purpose of erecting upon such leased ground sanitariums or hotels, to be opened for the reception of the public. And he is further authorized to make such regulations, for the convenience of people visiting such springs, with reference to spaces and locations, for the erection of tents or temporary dwelling houses to be erected or constructed for the use of those visiting such springs for health or pleasure. And the Secretary of Agriculture is authorized to prescribe the terms and duration and the compensation to be paid for the privileges granted under the provisions of this section.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Codification “National forest” substituted in text for “forest reserves” on authority of act Mar. 4, 1907, ch. 2907, 34 Stat. 1269, which provided that forest reserves shall hereafter be known as national forests.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Transfer of Functions

Act Feb. 1, 1905 transferred certain functions with regard to administration of national forests from Secretary of the Interior to Secretary of Agriculture.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

16 U.S.C. § 495

Title 16, Conservation

Last Updated

Aug 21, 2026

Release point: 119-102