Title 43, Public LandsRelease 119-102

§888 Selection by Railroads of Lands in Lieu of Lands Entered Subsequent to Accrual of Rights; Title of Settlers

Title 43 › CHAPTER 21 — GRANTS IN AID OF RAILROADS AND WAGON ROADS › § 888

Last updated Aug 21, 2026|Official source

Summary

When a railroad was given land but an actual settler later filed under homestead or preemption laws for some of those acres after the railroad’s right attached, the railroad can give up those specific acres. The railroad may then pick the same amount of other public, non‑mineral land inside the grant that was still available when it chose, and the railroad will get title to the new land like it was part of the original grant. The settler may finish getting full title to the land they entered as if the railroad had not claimed it. This does not make any railroad grant larger or affect lands that were specially reserved. It also does not approve any Interior Department certification of land to a railroad when a settler entered after the railroad located its line but before the local land office was told the land was withdrawn from sale.

Full Legal Text

Title 43, §888

Public Lands, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

In the adjustment of all railroad land grants, whether made directly to any railroad company or to any State for railroad purposes, if any of the lands granted be found in the possession of an actual settler whose entry or filing has been allowed under the preemption or homestead laws of the United States subsequent to the time at which, by the decision of the land office, the right of said road was declared to have attached to such lands, the grantees, upon a proper relinquishment of the lands so entered or filed for, shall be entitled to select an equal quantity of other lands in lieu thereof from any of the public lands not mineral and within the limits of the grant not otherwise appropriated at the date of selection, to which they shall receive title the same as though originally granted. And any such entries or filings thus relieved from conflict may be perfected into complete title as if such lands had not been granted: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall in any manner be so construed as to enlarge or extend any grant to any such railroad or to extend to lands reserved in any land grant made for railroad purposes: And provided further, That this section shall not be construed so as in any manner to confirm or legalize any decision or ruling of the Interior Department under which lands have been certified to any railroad company when such lands have been entered by a preemption or homestead settler after the location of the line of the road and prior to the notice to the local land office of the withdrawal of such lands from market.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

43 U.S.C. § 888

Title 43, Public Lands

Last Updated

Aug 21, 2026

Release point: 119-102