43 U.S.C. § 641 : US Code - Section 641: Grant of desert land to States authorized

Search 43 U.S.C. § 641 : US Code - Section 641: Grant of desert land to States authorized

To aid the public-land States in the reclamation of the desert
lands therein, and the settlement, cultivation and sale thereof in
small tracts to actual settlers, the Secretary of the Interior with
the approval of the President is, as of August 18, 1894, authorized
and empowered, upon proper application of the State to contract and
agree, from time to time, with each of the States in which there
may be situated desert lands as defined by the Act approved March
3, 1877, and the Act amendatory thereof, approved March 3, 1891,
binding the United States to donate, grant, and patent to the State
free of cost for survey or price such desert lands, not exceeding
one million acres in each State, as the State may cause to be
irrigated, reclaimed, occupied, and not less than twenty acres of
each one hundred and sixty acre tract cultivated by actual
settlers, as thoroughly as is required of citizens who may enter
under the desert-land law within ten years from the date of
approval by the Secretary of the Interior of the State's
application for the segregation of such lands; and if actual
construction of reclamation works is not begun within three years
after the segregation of the lands or within such further period
not exceeding three years, as shall be allowed by the Secretary of
the Interior, the said Secretary of the Interior, in his
discretion, may restore such lands to the public domain; and if the
State fails, within ten years from the date of such segregation, to
cause the whole or any part of the lands so segregated to be so
irrigated and reclaimed, the Secretary of the Interior may, in his
discretion, continue said segregation for a period not exceeding
five years, or may, in his discretion, restore such lands not
irrigated and reclaimed to the public domain upon the expiration of
the ten-year period or of any extension thereof.
Before the application of any State is allowed or any contract or
agreement is executed or any segregation of any of the land from
the public domain is ordered by the Secretary of the Interior, the
State shall file a map of the said land proposed to be irrigated
which shall exhibit a plan showing the mode of the contemplated
irrigation and which plan shall be sufficient to thoroughly
irrigate and reclaim said land and prepare it to raise ordinary
agricultural crops and shall also show the source of the water to
be used for irrigation and reclamation.
Any State contracting under this section is authorized to make
all necessary contracts to cause the said lands to be reclaimed,
and to induce their settlement and cultivation in accordance with
and subject to the provisions of this section; but the State shall
not be authorized to lease any of said lands or to use or dispose
of the same in any way whatever, except to secure their
reclamation, cultivation, and settlement.
As fast as any State may furnish satisfactory proof according to
such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the Secretary of
the Interior, that any of said lands are irrigated, reclaimed, and
occupied by actual settlers, patents shall be issued to the State
or its assigns for said lands so reclaimed and settled: Provided,
That said States shall not sell or dispose of more than one hundred
and sixty acres of said lands to any one person, and any surplus of
money derived by any State from the sale of said lands in excess of
the cost of their reclamation, shall be held as a trust fund for
and be applied to the reclamation of other desert lands in such
State.