Volume 32 · 757
Public Law 57–5
Relating to grants of land to the Territory and State of Washington for school purposes.
Approved December 18, 1902
Statutory text
An Act
Relating to grants of land to the Territory and State of Washington for school purposes.
Preamble.
Whereas by the Act of Congress of February twenty-second, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, providing that the inhabitants of the Territory of Washington might, upon certain conditions prescribed in said Act. become the State of Washington, certain lands were granted to the said State for school purposes; and
Vol. 25, p. 679.
Whereas a doubt has arisen as to what lands were granted by section ten of said Act; and
Vol. 10, p. 179.
Whereas by section twenty of the Act of Congress of March second, eighteen hundred and fifty-three, entitled “An Act to establish the Territorial government of Washington” the county commissioners of counties in said Territory were authorized to locate and select certain lands in lieu of sections sixteen arid thirty-six occupied by actual settlers; and
Vol. 11, p. 385.
Whereas by the Act of Congress of February twenty-sixth, eighteen hundred and fifty-nine, entitled “An Act to authorize settlers upon six-teenth and thirty-sixth sections, who settled before the surveys of public lands, to preempt their settlements” certain lands were appropriated for school purposes in lieu of such as might be patented by preemptors, and to compensate deficiencies for school purposes where said sections sixteen and thirty-six were fractional in quantity, or where one or both were wanting by reason of the township being fractional, or from any natural cause whatever, and providing for their selection; and
Whereas certain lieu lands have been selected by the Territory of Washington under said Acts of Congress: Therefore,
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
That in all cases where
Public lands.
Washington.
Selections in lieu of school grants confirmed.
sections sixteen and thirty-six, or either or any of them, or any portion thereof, have been occupied by actual settlers prior to survey thereof, and the county commissioners of the counties in which said sections so occupied as aforesaid are
Vol. 10, p. 179.
situated, have, under said Act of Congress of March second, eighteen hundred and fifty-three, located or selected other lands in sections or fractional sections, as the ease may be, within their respective counties, in lieu of said section so occupied as aforesaid, the lands so located or selected, when the same shall have been approved by the Secretary of the Interior, shall be deemed and taken to have been granted
Vol. 25, p. 679.
to said State by said Act of February twenty-second, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, and the title of said State thereto is hereby confirmed.
Sec. 2.
That where any lands appropriated by
Lands selected, in lieu of deficiencies confirmed.
Congress to said Territory to compensate deficiencies for school purposes, where sections sixteen or thirty-six were fractional in quantity, or where one or both were wanting by reason of the township being fractional, or from any natural cause whatever, or where section sixteen or thirty-six were patented by preemptors, have been selected and
Vol. 11, p. 385.
appropriated as provided in said Act of Congress of February twenty-sixth, eighteen hundred and fifty-nine, the lands so selected and appropriated, when the same shall have been approved by the Secretary of the Interior, shall be deemed and taken to have been
Vol. 25, p. 679.
granted to said State of Washington by the said Act of February twenty-second, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, and the title thereto confirmed.
Approved, December 18, 1902.