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Title 43, Public LandsRelease 119-102

§337 Entry, After Expenditures, Perfected as Homestead Entry

Title 43 › CHAPTER 9 — DESERT-LAND ENTRIES › § 337

Last updated Aug 21, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Secretary of the Interior may give a person who filed a desert-land claim before March 4, 1915, or a qualified assignee of such a claim, five years from the date they are notified to finish the claim as a homestead. To get that chance, the claimant must have honestly spent $3 per acre trying to reclaim the land, and the Secretary must decide, under his rules, that there is no reasonable chance of getting enough water to irrigate the land even if the extensions allowed by section 335 or any law before March 4, 1915, were granted. If the claim was assigned before March 4, 1915, the assignee can receive this same opportunity if they otherwise qualify.

Full Legal Text

Title 43, §337

Public Lands, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

Where it shall be made to appear to the satisfaction of the Secretary of the Interior, under rules and regulations to be prescribed by him, with reference to any lawful pending desert-land entry made prior to March 4, 1915, under which the entryman or his duly qualified assignee under an assignment made prior to March 4, 1915, has, in good faith, expended the sum of $3 per acre in the attempt to effect reclamation of the land, that there is no reasonable prospect that, if the extension allowed by section 335 of this title or any law existing prior to March 4, 1915, were granted, he would be able to secure water sufficient to effect reclamation of the irrigable land in his entry or any legal subdivision thereof, the Secretary of the Interior may, in his discretion, allow such entryman or assignee five years from notice within which to perfect the entry in the manner required of a homestead entryman: Provided, That in cases where such entries have been assigned prior to March 4, 1915, the assignees shall, if otherwise qualified, be entitled to the benefit hereof.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Codification Section is comprised of third paragraph of section 5 of act Mar. 4, 1915. First paragraph of such section 5, which was classified to section 26 of former Title 41, Public Contracts, was repealed by act
June 30, 1949, ch. 288, title VI, § 602(a)(26), 63 Stat. 401, eff.
July 1, 1949, renumbered Sept. 5, 1950, ch. 849, § 6(a), (b), 64 Stat. 583; second and fourth pars. of such section 5 are classified to section 335 and 338 of this title, respectively. Act Mar. 21, 1918 extended the provisions to include entries made prior to Mar. 4, 1915 and added the last proviso. Act Mar. 4, 1915 related to entries made prior to
July 1, 1914.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

43 U.S.C. § 337

Title 43, Public Lands

Last Updated

Aug 21, 2026

Release point: 119-102