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Title 16, ConservationRelease 119-102

§93 Grant of Prior Lands to Northern Pacific Railroad; Lieu Lands to Settlers

Title 16 › CHAPTER 1 — NATIONAL PARKS, MILITARY PARKS, MONUMENTS, AND SEASHORES › SUBCHAPTER XI — MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK › § 93

Last updated Aug 21, 2026|Official source

Summary

If the Northern Pacific Railroad files a deed with the Secretary of the Interior returning the lands it was granted that lie opposite its road in Mount Rainier National Park and the Pacific National Forest, the company may select an equal amount of nonmineral public land in any state its railroad runs, as long as that land is nonmineral when surveyed, not reserved, and has no existing or pending claims. Settlers on those park lands may give up their rights and accept other public land under the same rules that apply to national forests and parks.

Full Legal Text

Title 16, §93

Conservation, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

Upon execution and filing with the Secretary of the Interior, by the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, of proper deed releasing and conveying to the United States the lands in Mount Rainier National Park, also the lands in the Pacific National Forest which have been heretofore granted by the United States to said company, whether surveyed or unsurveyed, and which lie opposite said company’s constructed road, said company is authorized to select an equal quantity of nonmineral public lands, so classified as nonmineral at the time of actual Government survey, which has been or shall be made, of the United States not reserved and to which no adverse right or claim shall have attached or have been initiated at the time of the making of such selection, lying within any State into or through which the railroad of said Northern Pacific Railroad Company runs, to the extent of the lands so relinquished and released to the United States. Any settlers on lands in said national park may relinquish their rights thereto and take other public lands in lieu thereof, to the same extent and under the same limitations and conditions as are provided by law for national forests and national parks.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

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

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

16 U.S.C. § 93

Title 16, Conservation

Last Updated

Aug 21, 2026

Release point: 119-102