Chapter 386. to restore the Fort Benton Military Reservation to the public domain, and for other purposes
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CHAP. 386.— An Act to restore the Fort Benton Military Reservation to the public domain, and for other purposes.August 4, 1882. *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled*,Fort Benton military reservation restored to the public domain, etc.Sale; resident, actual settlers’ right of priority.*Proviso.* That the Secretary of War is hereby directed to restore to the Secretary of the Interior the custody and control of the military reservation at Fort Benton, Montana.
The Secretary of the Interior shall dispose of the same under the public land laws, and such actual settlers as arc now on said Iract in pursuance of military authority shall be entitled to the first right of entry: *Provided, *That the following described portion of said tract shall be disposed of under the provisions of section twenty three hundred and eighty seven R. S. 2387, 437.Addition to town site of Fort Benton.*Proviso,*Land reserved to Sarah E. Eastman a n d William S.
Wetzel.of the Revised Statutes of the United States relating to town sites on public lauds, to-wit: Beginning at the northeast corner of lot numbered three, in section fourteen, township twenty-four north, of range eight east of the principal meridian; running thence due east eighty chains; thence due south to the Missouri River; thence along the northern bank of said Missouri River to the intersection of the eastern line of lot. three in section twenty three of said township; thence due north along the line of the town site of Fort Benton to the place of beginning, as an addition to and a part of the present town site of Fort Benton: *And provided further,* That there is reserved from said described tract of land to Mrs.
Sarah E. Eastman, widow and administratrix of Francis Henry Eastman, and William 8. Wetzel, the land on which the fur trading post known as Old Fort Benton stands, and the land inclosed and occupied by them, as described on plats on tile in the War Department, the same being six acres, more or less, to which they shall have the prior right of entry, and that the same be conveyed to them by the proper authorities upon their compliance with law. The county judge of the county in which said town site is situated shall cause to be made a survey and a plat of said tract of land, and the said plat thereof shall be filed in the office of the register of the proper land office within ninety days from and after the passage of this act; and thereupon it shall be lawful tor the county judge as trustee of said townsite, to make entry of said tract of land at the local land office, and to dispose of the same to occupants in the. same manner as if the same, had been a part of the original town-site of Fort Benton.
Approved, August 4, 1882. 219 FORTY SEVENTH CONGRESS. SESS. I. CH. 389. 1882.