Chapter CCXCI. granting the Right of Way through the public Lands to the Utah Northern Railroad Company
595 words·~3 min read·
/statutes-at-large/vol-17/chapter-ccxci-2677408·A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
CHAP. CCXCI.— An Act granting the Right of Way through the public Lands to the Utah Northern Railroad Company.March 3, 1873. *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,* ThatRight of way granted to the Utah Northern R. R. Co., through public lands in Utah, Idaho, and Montana.Extent of grant.Land for buildings, side-tracks, &c.materials for construction.Private property not to be taken except, &c.1862, ch. 120.Vol. xii. p. 489.1864, ch 216, § 3.Vol, xiii. p. 357. for the purpose of enabling the Utah and Northern Railroad Company, a corporation organized under the laws of the Territory of Utah, to build and extend its line by way of Bear River Valley, Soda Springs, Snake River Valley, and through Montana Territory, to a connection with the Northern Pacific Railroad, bv the most advantageous and practicable line, to be selected by said company, the right of way through the public lands in the Territory of Utah, Idaho, and Montana is hereby granted to said company.
Said right of way hereby granted to said company is to be the extent of one hundred feet in width on each side of the central line of said road where it may pass over the public lands. There is also hereby granted to said company ail necessary ground, not to exceed twenty acres for each ten miles in length of the main line of said railroad, for station-buildings, workshops, depots, machine-shops, switches, side-tracks, turntables, and water-stations. And whenever it may be necessary to use material from the public lands for the construction of said road, it may be done; but no private property shall be taken for the use of said company, except in the manner now provided by section three of an act entitled “An act to amend an act entitled ‘An act to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri river to the Pacific, ocean, and to secure to the government the use of the same for postal, military, and other purposes,’ approved July first, eighteen hundred and sixty-two,” approved July second, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven.
Sec. 2. ThatMortgage and mortgage bonds. said company shall be authorized and empowered to mortgage, in the usual manner, their franchise, roadbed, and all property belonging to said company, to an amount not to exceed fifteen thousand dollars per mile for the entire length of said road, upon such terms as may seem to them best; and upon said mortgage may issue mortgage bonds, not to exceed the same amount per mile;United States not liable. but in no case shall the United States be liable in any way whatever for anything done by said company.
Sec. 3. ThatOther roads may be constructed, &c. the rights herein granted shall not preclude the construction of other roads through any canyon, defile, or pass on the route of said road. Sec. 4. ThatRoad when to be located and completed. the said railroad company shall locate the route of said railroad and file a map of such location within one year in the office of the Secretary of the interior, and shall complete its railroad within ten years after the passage of this act; and nolhing herein contained shall be construed as recognizing or denying the authority of the legislature of Utah Territory to create railroad corporations.
Sec. 5. TheAct may be amended. Congress reserves to itself the right to alter, amend, or repeal this act whenever in its judgment the interests of the people may require it. Approved, March 3, 1873.