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Title 43, Public LandsRelease 119-102

§759 Survey for and by Settlers in Township

Title 43 › CHAPTER 18 — SURVEY OF PUBLIC LANDS › § 759

Last updated Aug 21, 2026|Official source

Summary

Settlers, owners, or groups who legally hold township or other public land that is not mineral or otherwise reserved can ask the federal land survey agency the Secretary of the Interior names to survey that land. They must send a written request and deposit enough money with the United States to pay the survey and all related costs, and they cannot later seek payment from the government. The agency, following the Secretary’s instructions and the law, can make the survey and send the results to the proper land office. An application is allowed only if the township is inside the area where public surveys are already being carried out using existing standard lines and bases.

Full Legal Text

Title 43, §759

Public Lands, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

When the settlers in any township not mineral or reserved by the Government, or persons and associations lawfully possessed of coal lands and otherwise qualified to make entry thereof, or when the owners or grantees of public lands of the United States, under any law thereof, desire a survey made of the same under the authority of such agency as the Secretary of the Interior may designate and shall file an application therefor in writing, and shall deposit in a proper United States depository to the credit of the United States a sum sufficient to pay for such survey, together with all expenditures incident thereto, without cost or claim for indemnity on the United States, it shall be lawful for such agency, under such instructions as may be given by the Secretary of the Interior or such officer as he may designate, and in accordance with law, to survey such township or such public lands owned by said grantees of the Government, and make return therefor to the general and proper local land office: Provided, That no application shall be granted unless the township so proposed to be surveyed is within the range of the regular progress of the public surveys embraced by existing standard lines or bases for township and subdivisional surveys.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Codification R.S. § 2401 derived from act May 30, 1862, ch. 86, § 10, 12 Stat. 410.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Abolition of Office of Surveyor General and

Transfer of Functions

Act Mar. 3, 1925, abolished office of surveyor general and transferred administration of all activities in charge of surveyors general to Field Surveying Service under jurisdiction of United States Supervisor of Surveys.

Executive Documents

Transfer of Functions

For

Transfer of Functions

of other officers, employees, and agencies of Department of the Interior, with certain exceptions, to Secretary of the Interior, with power to delegate, see Reorg. Plan No. 3 of 1950, §§ 1, 2, eff. May 24, 1950, 15 F.R. 3174, 64 Stat. 1262, set out under section 1451 of this title. References to “the Field Surveying Service” changed to “such agency as the Secretary of the Interior may designate” and “such agency,”, respectively; and “Commissioner of the General Land Office” changed to “Secretary of the Interior or such officer as he may designate”, on authority of section 403 of Reorg. Plan No. 3 of 1946. See note set out under section 1 of this title.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

43 U.S.C. § 759

Title 43, Public Lands

Last Updated

Aug 21, 2026

Release point: 119-102