Chapter 1002. To amend section one of the Act of Congress approved May fourteenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, entitled “An Act extending the homestead laws and providing for a right of way for railroads in the district of Alaska.” March 3, 1903.[[Public, No. 152](/us/pl/57/152).] *Be it enacted by the Sen
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CHAP. 1002.— An Act To amend section one of the Act of Congress approved May fourteenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, entitled “An Act extending the homestead laws and providing for a right of way for railroads in the district of Alaska.” March 3, 1903.[[Public, No. 152](/us/pl/57/152).] *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled*, Alaska. Homestead laws extended to. Vol. 30, p. 409, amended. Restriction as to indemnity, etc., selections.
That all the provisions of the homestead laws of the United States not in conflict with the provisions of this Act, and all rights incident thereto, are hereby extended to the district of Alaska, subject to such regulations as may be made by the Secretary of the Interior; and no indemnity, deficiency, or lieu land selections pertaining to any land grant outside of the district of Alaska shall be made, and no land scrip or land warrant of any kind whatsoever shall be located within or exercised upon any lands in said district Maximum entries. except as now provided by law; and provided further that no more than one hundred and sixty acres shall be entered in any single body by such scrip, lieu selection, or soldier’s additional homestead right; 1029 and provided further that no location of scrip, selection, or right Locations on water banks. along any navigable or other waters shall be made within the distance of eighty rods of any lands, along such waters, theretofore located by means of any such scrip or otherwise; and provided further that no Commutation. commutation privileges shall be allowed in excess of one hundred and sixty acres included in any homestead entry under the provisions hereof: *Provided*, That no entry shall be allowed extending more than one *Provisos*.
Reservations on navigable waters. hundred and sixty rods along the shore of any navigable water, and along such shore a space of at least eighty rods shall be reserved from entry between all such claims; and that nothing herein contained shall No entries of shores. be so construed as to authorize entries to be made or title to be acquired to the shore of any navigable waters within said district; and no patent Patent requirements. [R. S., secs. 2291, 2292, 2305, pp. 420, 422](/us/rs/s2291/2292/2305/pp420/422). shall issue hereunder until all the requirements of sections twenty-two hundred and ninety-one, twenty-two hundred and ninety-two, and twenty-three hundred and five of the Revised Statutes of the United States have been fully complied with as to residence, improvements, cultivation, and proof except as to commuted lands as herein provided: *And it is further provided*, That every person who is qualified under Maximum entry increased. existing laws to make homestead entry of the public lands of the United States who has settled upon or who shall hereafter settle upon any of the public lands of the United States situated in the district of Alaska, whether surveyed or unsurveyed, with the intention of claiming the same under the homestead laws, shall, subject to the provisions and limitations hereof, be entitled to enter three hundred and twenty acres or a less quantity of unappropriated public land in said district of Location on unsurveyed lands.
Alaska. If any of the land so settled upon, or to be settled upon, is unsurveyed, then the land settled upon, or to be settled upon, must be located in a rectangular form, not more than one mile in length, and located by north and south lines run according to the true meridian; that the location so made shall be marked upon the ground by permanent monuments at each of the four corners of the said location, so Records to be filed. that the boundaries of the same may be readily and easily traced; that the record of said location shall, within ninety days from the date of settlement, be filed for record in the recording district in which the land is situated.
Said record shall contain the name of the settler, the date of the settlement, and such a description of the land settled upon, by reference to some natural object or permanent monument, as will identify the same; and, if after the expiration of the said period Issue of patent. of five years or at such date as the settler may desire to commute the public surveys of the United States have not been extended over the land located, a patent shall nevertheless issue for the land included within the boundaries of said location as thus recorded, upon proof to be submitted to the register and receiver of the proper land office, upon proof that he is a citizen of the United States, and upon the [R.
S., sec. 2291, p. 420](/us/rs/s2291/p420). further proof required by section twenty-two hundred and ninety-one of the Revised Statutes of the United States as heretofore and herein amended, and under the procedure in the obtaining of patents to the unsurveyed lands of the United States, as provided for by section ten Vol. 30, p. 414. of the Act hereby amended, and under such rules and regulations as shall be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior as hereinbefore provided, without the payment of any purchase price or other charges, Payments. except the ordinary office fees and commissions of the register and receiver except one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre on land commuted: *And provided always*, That no title shall be obtained hereunder Mineral. to any of the mineral or coal lands of the district of Alaska: *And it is further provided*, That the right of any homestead settler to transfer Transfers permitted. [R.
S., sec. 2288, p. 419](/us/rs/s2288/p419). any portion of the land so settled upon, as provided by section twenty-two hundred and eighty-eight of the Revised Statutes of the United States, shall be restricted and limited within the district of Alaska as follows: For church, cemetery, or school purposes to five acres, and 1030 for the right of railroads across such homestead to one hundred feet in Contracts voidable. width on either side of the center line of said railroad; and all contracts by the settler made before his receipt of patent from the Government, for the conveyance of the land homesteaded by him or her, except as herein provided, shall be held null and void.
Approved, March 3, 1903.