Chapter 163.
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/statutes-at-large/vol-26/chapter-163-3138222·A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
CHAP. 163.— An act to provide for the disposal of the abandoned Fort Ellis military reservation in Montana under the homestead law, and for other purposes.February 13, 1891. *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled*,Fort Ellis Military Reservation, Mont. Portion of, may be open to homestead entry. To be surveyed. That the Secretary of the Interior be, and is hereby, authorized and directed to cause the lands embraced within the abandoned Fort Ellis military reservation in Montana to be regularly surveyed by an extension of the public surveys over the unsurveyed portions thereof. 748FIFTY-FIRST CONGRESS.
Sess. II. Chs. 163, 164. 1891. Sec. 2. That there is hereby granted to the State of Montana, oneSection granted for State militia campground, etc. section of said reservation, to be selected according to legal subdivisions so as to embrace the buildings and improvements thereon to be used by said State as a permanent militia campground, or for other public purpose in the discretion of the State Legislature: *Proviso*.*Provided*, That whenever the State shall Reversion.cease to use said lands for public purposes the same shall revert to the United States.
Sec. 3. That the remainder of said reservation, or any portionRemainder granted to State. thereof may be selected by the State of Montana at any time within Limitations.one year after the approval of the survey thereof, in tracts of not less than one section, in square form and according to legal subdivisions as a part of the kinds granted to said State under the provision ofVol, 25, p. 676. “An act to provide for the admission of the State of Montana into the Union,” approved February twenty-second, eighteen hundred Patents.and eighty-nine.
And the Secretary of the Interior shall cause *Provisos*.patents for the lands so selected to be issued to the said State: *Provided*, Existing rights.That no existing lawful rights to any of said lands initiated under any of the laws of the United States shall be invalidated by this act:Lands subject to entry, unselected by State, one year after survey. Remaining lands, after completed selections. *Provided*, That if any portion of said reservation shall remain unselected by said State for a period of one year after the approval of the survey, that portion remaining unselected shall be subject to entry under the general land and mining laws of the United States: *Provided further*, That if within said period of one year the Governor of said State shall officially notify the Secretary of the Interior that the State has completed its selections, then the Secretary shall at once proclaim the remaining lands open to entry as aforesaid:No waiver of right to forfeit Northern Pacific R.
R. lands. *And provided further*, That nothing in this act shall be construed to waive or release in any way. any right of the United States to have the lands granted to the Northern Pacific-Railroad Company forfeited, for any failure past or future, to comply with the conditions of the grant. Approved, February 13, 1891.