Title 43 — Public LandsRelease 119-73not60
§907 Rights of Original Grantees to Forfeited Lands
Title 43 › Chapter 21— GRANTS IN AID OF RAILROADS AND WAGON ROADS › § 907
Summary
Land taken by the United States under sections 904–907 cannot go to any State or company that Congress already gave land to, except where those sections allow. Taking the land does not make a grant bigger or give rights to land that was left out. If a railroad had grants for a main and a branch but only one was finished, half of the lands for the unfinished line that were taken under section 904 and lie inside the overlapping grant area do not go to the finished line.
Full Legal Text
Title 43, §907
Public Lands — Source: USLM XML via OLRC
No lands declared forfeited to the United States by sections 904 to 907 of this title shall by reason of such forfeiture inure to the benefit of any State or corporation to which lands may have been granted by Congress, except as therein otherwise provided; nor shall said sections be construed to enlarge the area of land originally covered by any such grant, or to confer any right upon any State, corporation, or person to lands which were excepted from such grant. Nor shall the moiety of the lands granted to any railroad company on account of a main and a branch line appertaining to uncompleted road, and forfeited by section 904 of this title, within the conflicting limits of the grants for such main and branch lines, when but one of such lines has been completed, inure by virtue of the forfeiture declared to the benefit of the completed line.
Reference
Citations & Metadata
Citation
43 U.S.C. § 907
Title 43 — Public Lands
Last Updated
Apr 5, 2026
Release point: 119-73not60