Title 43—Public Lands: Interior--Volume 1
PART 2620—STATE GRANTS
§ 2621.0-2   Objectives and background.
Generally, grants made by Statehood Acts to the various States of school sections 16 and 36, and in addition, sections 2 and 32 in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, attach to a school sections on the date of acceptance or approval of the plat of survey thereof. If the acceptance or approval was prior to the granting act, or to the date of admission of the State into the Union, the grant attaches either on the date of approval of the act or the date of admission into the Union, whichever is the later date. However, if on the date the grant would otherwise attach, the land is appropriated under some applicable public land law, the grant does not attach, and the State is entitled to indemnity therefor as provided in the regulations in this subpart.
§ 2621.0-3   Authority.
(a) Sections 2275 and 2276 of the Revised Statutes, as amended (43 U.S.C. 851, 852), referred to in §§ 2621.0-3 to 2621.4 of this subpart as the law, authorize the public land States except Alaska to select lands (or the retained or reserved interest of the United States in lands which have been disposed of with a reservation to the United States of all minerals, or any specified mineral or minerals, which interest is referred to in §§ 2621.0-3 to 2621.4 as the mineral estate ) of equal acreage within their boundaries as indemnity for grant lands in place lost to the States because of appropriation before title could pass to the State or because of natural deficiencies resulting from such causes as fractional sections and fractional townships.
(b) The law provides that indemnity for lands lost because of natural deficiencies will be selected from the unappropriated, nonmineral, public lands, and that indemnity for lands lost before title could pass to the State will be selected from the unappropriated, public lands subject to the following restrictions:
(1) No lands mineral in character may be selected except to the extent that the selection is made as indemnity for mineral lands.
(2) No lands on a known geologic structure of a producing oil or gas field may be selected except to the extent that the selection is made as indemnity for lands on such a structure.
(c) The law also provides that lands subject to a mineral lease or permit may be selected, but only if the lands are otherwise available for selection, and if none of the lands subject to that lease or permit are in producing or producible status. It permits the selection of lands withdrawn, classified, or reported as valuable for coal, phosphate, nitrate, potash, oil, gas, asphaltic minerals, oil shale, sodium, and sulphur and lands withdrawn by Executive Order 5327 of April 15, 1930, if such lands are otherwise available for, and subject to, selection: Provided, That except where the base lands are mineral in character, such minerals are reserved to the United States in accordance with and subject to the regulations in subpart 2093. Except for the withdrawals mentioned in this paragraph and for lands subject to classification under section 7 of the Taylor Grazing Act of June 28, 1934 (48 Stat. 1269; 43 U.S.C. 315f), as amended, the law does not permit the selection of withdrawn or reserved lands.
(d) Subsection (b) of the section 2276 of the Revised Statutes, as amended, sets forth the principles of adjustment where selections are made to compensate for deficiencies of school lands in fractional townships.
§ 2621.1   Applications for selection.
(a) Applications for selection must be made on a form approved by the Director, and must be accompanied by a petition on a form approved by the Director properly executed. However, if the lands described in application have been already classified and opened for selection pursuant to the regulations of this part, no petition is required.
(b) Applications for selection under the law will be made by the proper selecting agent of the State and will be filed, in duplicate, in the proper office in the State or for lands or mineral estate in a State in which there is no office, will be filed in accordance with the provisions of § 1821.2 of this chapter.
(c) Applications must be accompanied by the following information:
(1) A reference to the Act of August 27, 1958 (72 Stat. 928), as amended.
(2) A certificate by the selecting agent showing:
(i) All facts relative to medicinal or hot springs or other waters upon the selected lands.
(ii) That indemnity has not been previously granted for the assigned base lands and that no other selection is pending for such assigned base.
(3) A statement describing the mineral or nonmineral character of each smallest legal subdivision of the base and selected lands or mineral estate.
(4) A certificate by the officer or officers charged with the care and disposal of school lands that no instrument purporting to convey, or in any way incumber, the title to any of the land used as base or bases, has been issued by the State or its agents.
(d) In addition to the requirements of paragraph (c) of this section, applications for selection must conform with the following rules:
(1) The selected land and base lands must be described in accordance with the official plats of survey except that unsurveyed lands will be described in terms of protracted surveys as officially approved in accordance with 43 CFR 3101.1-4(d)(1). If the unsurveyed lands are not covered by protracted surveys the lands must be described in terms of their probable legal description, if and when surveyed in accordance with the rectangular system of public land surveys, or if the State Director gives written approval therefor, by a metes and bounds description adequate to identify the lands accurately.
(2) Separate base or bases do not have to be assigned to each smallest legal subdivision of selected surveyed lands or mineral estate and to each tract of unsurveyed lands upon application. However, prior to final approval of the selection, separate base or bases shall be assigned. Assignment of the smallest actual or probable legal subdivision as base will constitute an election to take indemnity for the entire subdivision and is a waiver of the State's rights to such subdivision, except that any remaining balance of acreage may be used as base in other selections.
(3) For purposes of selecting unsurveyed land a protracted section shall be considered to be a smallest legal subdivision except where the State Director finds otherwise.
(4) The cause of loss of the base lands to the State must be specifically stated for each separate base.
§ 2621.2   Publication and protests.
(a) The State will be required to publish once a week for five consecutive weeks in accordance with § 1824.3 of this chapter, at its own expense, in a designated newspaper and in a designated form, a notice allowing all persons claiming the land adversely to file in the appropriate office their objections to the issuance of a certification to the State for lands selected under the law. A protestant must serve on the State a copy of the objections and furnish evidence of service to the appropriate land office.
(b) The State must file a statement of the publisher, accompanied by a copy of the notice published, showing that publication has been had for the required time.
§ 2621.3   Certifications; mineral leases and permits.
(a) Certifications will be issued for all selections approved under the law by the authorized officer of the Bureau of Land Management.
(b) Where all the lands subject to a mineral lease or permit are certified to a State, or if, where the State has previously acquired title to a portion of the lands subject to a mineral lease or permit, the remaining lands in the lease or permit are certified to the State, the State shall succeed to the position of the United States thereunder. Where a portion of the lands subject to any mineral lease or permit are certified to a State, the United States shall retain for the duration of the lease or permit the mineral or minerals for which the lease or permit was issued.
§ 2621.4   Application for selection of unsurveyed lands.
(a) The authorized officer will reject any application for selection of unsurveyed lands if: (1) The costs of survey of the lands would grossly exceed the average per-acre costs of surveying public lands under the rectangular system of surveys in the State in which the lands are located, or (2) if the conveyance of the lands would create serious problems in the administration of the remaining public lands or resources thereof or would significantly diminish the value of the remaining public lands. The term remaining public lands means the public lands from which the applied-for lands would be separated by survey.
(b) In addition to the provisions of this section, applications for selection of unsurveyed lands are subject to the provisions of subpart 2400.
§ 2622.0-1   Purpose and scope.
(a) Sections 2622.0-1 to 2622.0-8 apply generally to quantity and special grants made to States other than Alaska.
(b) The regulations in §§ 2621.2 to 2621.4 apply to quantity and special grants with the following exceptions and modifications:
(1) Sections 2621.4(b) and 2621.2(c)(4); and §§ 2621.2(d) (3) and (4) and all references to base lands and to mineral estate do not apply.
(2) Section 2621.2(c)(1) is modified to require reference to the appropriate granting act; § 2621.2(c)(3) is modified to require a statement testifying to the nonmineral character of each smallest legal subdivision of the selected land; § 2621.2(d)(2) is modified to permit as much as 6,400 acres in a single selection; and § 2621.2 is modified to require a certificate that the selection and those pending, together with those approved, do not exceed the total amount granted for the stated purpose of the grant.
§ 2622.0-8   Lands subject to selection.
Selections made in satisfaction of quantity and special grants can generally be made only from the vacant, unappropriated, nonmineral, surveyed public lands within the State to which the grant was made. If the lands are otherwise available for selection, the States may select lands which are withdrawn, classified, or reported as valuable for coal, phosphate, nitrate, potash, oil, gas, asphaltic minerals, sodium, or sulphur, provided that the appropriate minerals are reserved to the United States in accordance with and subject to the regulations of subpart 2093.
§ 2623.0-3   Authority.
(a) The first paragraph of section 1 of the Act approved January 25, 1927 (44 Stat. 1026; 43 U.S.C. 870), reads as follows:
That, subject to the provisions of paragraphs (a), (b), and (c) of this section, the several grants to the States of numbered sections in place for the support or in aid of common or public schools be, and they are hereby, extended to embrace numbered school sections mineral in character, unless land has been granted to and/or selected by and certified or approved, to any such State or States as indemnity or in lieu of any land so granted by numbered sections.
(b) The beneficiaries of this grant are the States of Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. The grant also extends to the unsurveyed school sections reserved, granted, and confirmed to the State of Florida by the Act of Congress approved September 22, 1922 (42 Stat. 1017; 16 U.S.C. 483, 484).
(c) The additional grant thus made, subject to all the conditions in the statute making same, applies to school-section lands known to be of mineral character at the effective date thereof as hereinafter defined. It does not include school-section lands nonmineral in character, those not known to be mineral in character at time of grant, but afterwards found to contain mineral deposits, such lands not being excepted from the grants theretofore made (Wyoming et al. v. United States, 255 U.S. 489-500, 501, 65 L. ed. 742-748), nor does it include lands in numbered school sections in lieu of or as indemnity for which lands were conveyed to the States first above named, or to the State of Florida with respect to school-section lands coming within the purview of the Act of September 22, 1922, prior to January 25, 1927.
(d) Determinations made prior to January 25, 1927, by the Secretary of the Interior or the Commissioner of the General Land Office to the effect that lands in school sections were excepted from school-land grants because of their known mineral character do not, of themselves, prevent or affect in any way the vesting of title in the States pursuant to the provisions of the statute making the additional grant.
(e) Subsection (a) of section 1 of the Act provides:
That the grant of numbered mineral sections under this Act shall be of the same effect as prior grants for the numbered nonmineral sections, and title to such numbered mineral sections shall vest in the States at the time and in the manner and be subject to all the rights of adverse parties recognized by existing law in the grants of numbered nonmineral sections.
§ 2623.0-7   Cross reference.
For national forests and national parks, see § 1821.7-2 of this chapter. For naval petroleum reserves, see § 3102.2-2 of this chapter.
§ 2623.0-8   Lands subject to selection.
(a) Lands included in grant. (1) Section 2 of the Act of January 25, 1927 (44 Stat. 1027; 43 U.S.C. 871) reads as follows:
Sec. 2. That nothing herein contained is intended or shall be held or construed to increase, diminish, or affect the rights of States under grants other than for the support of common or public schools by numbered school sections in place, and this Act shall not apply to indemnity of lieu selections or exchanges or the right hereafter to select indemnity for numbered school sections in place lost to the State under the provisions of this or other Acts, and all existing laws governing such grants and indemnity or lieu selections and exchanges are hereby continued in full force and effect.
(2) The only grants affected in any way by the provisions of the Act of January 25, 1927, are those of numbered sections of land in place made to the States for the support of common or public schools. The adjudication of claims to land asserted under other grants, for indemnity or lieu lands and exchanges of lands, will proceed as theretofore, being governed by the provisions of existing laws applicable thereto. The States will be afforded full opportunity, however, if the facts and conditions are such as to authorize such action, either to assign new base in support of or to withdraw pending unapproved indemnity school land selections in support of which mineral school-section lands have been tendered as base.
(b) Lands excluded from grant. (1) Subsection (c) of section 1 of the Act of January 25, 1927, provides:
That any lands included within the limits of existing reservations of or by the United States, or specifically reserved for waterpower purposes, or included in any pending suit or proceedings in the courts of the United States, or subject to or included in any valid application, claim, or right initiated or held under any of the existing laws of the United States, unless or until such application, claim, or right is relinquished or canceled, and all lands in the Territory of Alaska are excluded from the provisions of this act.
(2) School-section lands included within the limits of existing reservations of or by the United States, specifically reserved for waterpower purposes, or included in any suit or proceedings in the courts of the United States, prior to January 25, 1927, and all lands in Alaska are excluded from the provisions of the Act. (§ 2623.4)
(3) The words existing reservation as used in subsection (c) are construed generally and subject to specific determination in particular cases if the need therefor shall arise, as including Indian and military reservations, naval and petroleum reserves, national parks, national forests, stock driveways, reservations established under the Act of June 25, 1910 (36 Stat. 847; 43 U.S.C. 141-143), as amended by the Act of August 24, 1912 (37 Stat. 497; 43 U.S.C. 142), and all forms of Executive withdrawal recognized and construed by the Department of the Interior as reservations, existent prior to January 25, 1927.
§ 2623.1   Effective date of grant.
Grants to the States of school lands in place (the numbered sections), of the character and status subject thereto, as a rule, are effective and operate to vest title upon the date of the approval of the statute making the grant or the date of the admission of the State into the Union, as to lands then surveyed, and as to the lands thereafter surveyed upon the date of the acceptance of the survey thereof by the Director of the Bureau of Land Management. (United States v. Morrison, 240 U.S. 192, 60 L. ed. 599; United States v. Sweet, 245 U.S. 563, 62 L. ed. 473; Wyoming et al. v. United States, supra.) It is held, therefore, that the grant made by the first paragraph of section 1 of the Act of January 25, 1927, subject to the provision therein with respect to indemnity or lieu lands, to the provisions of subsections (b) and (c) of said section 1 and following the plain provisions of subsection (a) thereof is effective upon the date of the approval of the Act (January 25, 1927) as to lands then surveyed and the survey thereof accepted by the Director of the Bureau of Land Management and as to the unsurveyed school sections in the State of Florida granted to that State by the Act of September 22, 1922. The grant, as to other lands thereafter surveyed, subject to the same provisions is effective upon the acceptance of the survey thereof as above indicated.
§ 2623.2   Claims protected.
(a) Valid applications, claims, or rights protected by the provisions of subsection (c) of section 1 of the Act of January 25, 1927, include applications, entries, selections, locations, permits, leases, and other forms of filing, initiated or held pursuant to existing laws of the United States prior to January 25, 1927, embracing known mineral school-section lands then surveyed and otherwise within the terms of the additional grant, and as to lands thereafter surveyed, valid applications, claims, or rights so initiated or held prior to the date of the acceptance of the survey. The additional grant to the State will attach upon the effective date of the relinquishment or cancellation of any claim, so asserted, in the absence of any other valid existing claim for the land and if same be then surveyed. Should the validity of any such claim be questioned by the State, proceedings with respect thereto by protest, contest, hearing, etc., will be had in the form and manner prescribed by existing rules governing such cases. This procedure will be followed in the matter of all protests, contests, or claims filed by individuals, associations, or corporations against the States affecting school-section lands.
§ 2623.3   States not permitted to dispose of lands except with reservation of minerals.
(a) Subsection (b) of section 1 of the Act of January 25, 1927, provides:
That the additional grant made by this Act is upon the express condition that all sales, grants, deeds, or patents for any of the lands so granted shall be subject to and contain a reservation to the State of all the coal and other minerals in the lands so sold, granted, deeded, or patented, together with the right to prospect for, mine, and remove the same. The coal and other mineral deposits in such lands shall be subject to lease by the State as the State legislature may direct, the proceeds of rentals and royalties therefrom to be utilized for the support or in aid of the common or public schools: Provided, That any lands or minerals disposed of contrary to the provisions of this Act shall be forfeited to the United States by appropriate proceedings instituted by the Attorney General for that purpose in the United States district court for the district in which the property or some part thereof is located.
(b) The lands granted to the States by the Act of January 25, 1927, and the mineral deposits therein are to be disposed of by the States in the manner prescribed in subsection (b) thereof, provision being made for judicial forfeiture in case of disposal of any of the lands or minerals contrary to the provisions of the act.
§ 2623.4   Grant of mineral school sections effective upon restoration of land from reservation.
(a) By the Act of January 25, 1927 (44 Stat. 1026; 43 U.S.C. 870, 871), which grants to the States certain school-section lands that are mineral in character, it is provided by subsection (c) of section 1 that where such lands are embraced within an existing reservation at the date of said Act of 1927, they are thereby excluded from the grant made by said act.
(b) Under the amendatory Act of May 2, 1932 (47 Stat. 140; 43 U.S.C. 870), it is provided that in the event of the restoration of the lands from such reservation, the grant to the State of such mineral school-section lands will thereupon become effective.
(c) Adjudications in connection with the State's title to school sections will be governed by the provisions of this amendatory Act of May 2, 1932.
§ 2625.0-3   Authority.
(a) Circular dated Mar. 17, 1896, containing the swamp-land laws and regulations, states:
As soon as practicable after the passage of the swamp-land grant of September 28, 1850, viz, on the 21st of November 1850, the commissioner transmitted to the governors of the respective States to which the grant applied copies of office circular setting forth the provisions of said Act, giving instructions thereunder, and allowing the States to elect which of two methods they would adopt for the purpose of designating the swamp lands, viz:
1. The field notes of Government survey could be taken as the basis for selections, and all lands shown by them to be swamp or overflowed, within the meaning of the act, which were otherwise vacant and unappropriated September 28, 1850, would pass to the States.
2. The States could select the lands by their own agents and report the same to the United States surveyor general with proof as to the character of the same.
The following States elected to make the field notes of survey the basis for determining what lands passed to them under the grant, viz: Louisiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Later the State of Minnesota adopted this method of settlement.
The authorities of the following States elected to make their selections by their own agents and present proof that the lands selected were of the character contemplated by the swamp grant, viz: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio. Later Oregon adopted this method.
The States of Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Mississippi, and Ohio adopted the second method at the beginning, but they changed to the first method, i.e., to the field notes of survey, as a basis of settlement, in recent years.
The authorities of California did not adopt either method, and the passage of the Act of July 23, 1866, rendered such action on their part unnecessary.
In Louisiana the selections under the grant of March 2, 1849, forming the bulk of the selections in said State, are made in accordance with the terms of said act by deputy surveyors, under the direction of the United States surveyor general, at the expense of the State.
(b) The grant of swamp lands, under Acts of March 2, 1849, and September 28, 1850, is a grant in praesenti. See United States Supreme Court decisions Railroad Co. v. Fremont County (9 Wall, 89, 19 L. ed. 563); Railroad Co. v. Smith (id. 95, 19 L. ed. 599); Martin v. Marks (7 Otto 345, 24 L. ed. 940); decisions of the Secretary of the Interior, December 23, 1851 (1 Lester's L.L. 549), April 25, 1862, and opinion of Attorney General, November 10, 1858 (1 Lester's L.L. 564).
(c) The Act of September 28, 1850, did not grant swamp and overflowed lands to States admitted into the Union after its passage. See decision of Secretary of the Interior, August 17, 1858; Commissioner, General Land Office, May 2, 1871 (Copp's L.L. 474), affirmed by Secretary June 1, 1871, and Commissioner, General Land Office, January 19, 1874 (Copp's L.L. 473), affirmed by Secretary July 9, 1875.
(d) A State having elected to take swamp land by field notes and plats of survey is bound by them, as is also the Government. (See Secretary's decisions, October 4, 1855 (1 Lester's L.L. 553), August 1, 1859 (id. 571), December 4, 1877 (4 Copp's L.L. 149), and September 19, 1879.
(e) The Swamp-Land Acts do not contain any exception or reservation of mineral lands and none is to be implied, since at the time of their enactment the public policy of withholding mineral lands for disposition only under laws including them, was not established. Work, Secretary of the Interior v. Louisiana (269 U.S. 250, 70 L. ed. 259).
§ 2625.1   Selection and patenting of swamp lands.
(a) All lands properly selected and reported to the Bureau of Land Management as swamp will be compared with the records of the said office, and lists of such lands as are shown to be swamp or overflowed, within the meaning of the Acts of March 2, 1849, and September 28, 1850 (9 Stat. 352, 519), and that are otherwise free from conflict will be made out by such office and approved.
(b) When the lists have been approved a copy of each list will be transmitted to the governor of the State, with the statement that on receipt of his request patent will issue to the State for the lands. A copy of each list also will be transmitted to the authorizing officer of the proper office for the district in which the lands are situated, and he will be requested to examine the same with the records of his office and report any conflicts found.
(c) Upon receipt of a request from the governor for patent, and a report from the authorizing officer as to status, patents will issue to the State for all the lands embraced in said lists so far as they are free from conflict.
(d) Under the provisions of the Act of March 2, 1849, granting swamp lands to the State of Louisiana, a certified copy of the list approved by the Director, transmitted to the Governor, has the force and effect of a patent.
§ 2625.2   Applications in conflict with swamp-land claims.
Applications adverse to the State, in conflict with swamp-land claims, will be governed by the following rules:
(a) In those States where the adjudication of swamp-land claims is based on the evidence contained in the survey returns, applications adverse to the State for lands returned as swamp will be rejected unless accompanied by a showing that the land is non-swamp in character.
(b) In such case, the claim adverse to the State must be supported by a statement of the applicant under oath, corroborated by two witnesses, setting forth the basis of the claim and that at the date of the swamp-land grant the land was not swamp and overflowed and not rendered thereby unfit for cultivation. In the absence of such affidavit the application will be rejected. If properly supported, the application will be received and suspended subject to a hearing to determine the swamp or nonswamp character of the land, the burden of proof being upon the non-swamp claimant.
(c) In those States where the survey returns are not made the basis for adjudication of the swamp-land selections, junior applications for lands covered by swamp-land selections may be received and suspended, if supported by non-swamp affidavits corroborated by two witnesses, subject to hearing to determine the character of the land, whether swamp or non-swamp, and the burden of proof will be upon the junior applicant. Likewise, the State, if a junior applicant, may be heard upon furnishing an affidavit corroborated by two witnesses alleging that the land is swamp in character within the meaning of the swamp-land grant, in which case the burden of proof at the hearing will be upon the State.
(d) Where hearings are ordered in any such cases, the Rules of Practice governing contests will be applied, except as herein otherwise provided.
§ 2627.1   Grant for community purposes.
(a) Authority. The Act of July 7, 1958 (72 Stat. 339, 340), grants to the State of Alaska the right to select, within 25 years after January 3, 1959, not to exceed 400,000 acres of national forest lands in Alaska which are vacant and unappropriated at the time of their selection and not to exceed 400,000 acres of other public lands in Alaska which are vacant, unappropriated, and unreserved at the time of their selection. The act provides that the selected lands must be adjacent to the established communities or suitable for prospective community centers and recreational areas. The act further provides that such lands shall be selected with the approval of the Secretary of Agriculture as to national forest lands and with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior as to other lands, and that no selection shall be made north and west of the line described in section 10 of the act without approval of the President or his designated representative.
(b) Applicable regulations. Unless otherwise indicated therein, the regulations in § 2627.3 (a) to (d) apply to the grant and selection of lands for community purposes. In addition to the requirements of § 2627.3(c), where the selected lands are national forest, the application for selection must be accompanied by a statement of the Secretary of Agriculture or his delegate showing that he approves the selection.
(c) Approval of selections outside of national forests. Selection of lands outside of national forests will be approved by the authorized officer of the Bureau of Land Management if, all else being regular, he finds that approval of a selection of lands adjacent to an established community will further expansion of an established community, or if the lands are suitable for prospective community centers and recreational areas.
§ 2627.2   Grant for University of Alaska.
(a) Statutory authority. The Act of January 21, 1929 (45 Stat. 1091), as supplemented July 7, 1958 (72 Stat. 339, 343; 43 U.S.C. 852 note), grants to the State of Alaska, for the exclusive use and benefit of the University of Alaska, the unsatisfied portion of 100,000 acres of vacant, surveyed, unreserved public lands in said State, to be selected by the State, under the direction and subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, and subject to the conditions and limitations expressed in the act.
(b) Applications for selection. (1) Applications to select lands under the grant made to Alaska by the Act of January 21, 1929, will be made by the proper selecting agent of the State and will be filed in the proper office of the district in which such selected lands are situated. Such selections must be made in accordance with the law and with the applicable regulations governing selection of lands by States as set forth in part 2620.
(2) Notice of selection and publication is required as provided by § 2627.5 (b) and (c).
(3) Each list of selections must contain a reference to the act under which the selections are made and must be accompanied by a certificate of the selecting agent showing the selections are made under and pursuant to the laws of the State of Alaska.
(4) The selections in any one list must not exceed 6,400 acres.
(5) Each list must be accompanied by a certification of the selecting agent stating that the acreage selected together with the cumulative acreage total of all prior sales for lists pending and finally approved for clear-listing or patenting does not exceed 100,000 acres.
(c) Statement with application. Every application for selection under the Act of January 21, 1929, must be accompanied by a duly corroborated statement making the following showing as to the lands sought to be selected.
(1) That no portion of the land is occupied for any purpose by the United States and that to the best of his knowledge and belief the land is unoccupied, unimproved, and unappropriated by any person claiming the same other than the applicant; and that at the date of the application no part of the land was claimed under the mining laws.
(2) That the land applied for does not extend more than 160 rods along the shore of any navigable water or that such restriction has been or should be waived. (See § 2094.2 of this chapter.)
(3) All facts relative to medicinal or hot springs or other waters upon the lands must be stated.
§ 2627.3   Grant for general purposes.
(a) Statutory authority. (1) The Act of July 7, 1958 (72 Stat. 339-343), referred to in paragraphs (a) to (d) of this section as the act, grants to the State of Alaska the right to select, within 25 years from January 3, 1959, not to exceed 102,550,000 acres from the public lands in Alaska which are vacant, unappropriated and unreserved at the time of selection. The Act of September 14, 1960 (74 Stat. 1024), defines vacant unappropriated, unreserved public lands in Alaska to include the retained or reserved interest of the United States in lands which have been disposed of with a reservation to the United States of all minerals or any specified mineral or minerals.
(2) The Act further provides that no selection shall be made in the area north and west of the line described in section 10 thereof (72 Stat. 345) without the approval of the President or his designated representative.
(b) Lands subject to selection; patents; minerals. (1) The Act as amended August 18, 1959 (73 Stat. 395), provides that any lease, permit, license, or contract issued under the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 (41 Stat. 437; 30 U.S.C. 181 et seq. ), as amended, or under the Alaska Coal Leasing Act of 1914 (38 Stat. 741; 30 U.S.C. 432 et seq. ), as amended, referred to in this section as the mineral leasing acts, shall have the effect of withdrawing the lands subject thereto from selection by the State.
(2) Under the Act, the State may select any vacant, unappropriated, and unreserved public lands in Alaska, whether or not they are surveyed and whether or not they contain mineral deposits. For the purposes of selection, leases, permits, licenses, and contracts issued under the Mineral Leasing Acts of 1914 and 1920 will be considered an appropriation of lands. Where the preference provisions of § 2627.4(a) do not apply, selections by the State of lands covered by an application filed prior to the State selection will be rejected to the extent of the conflict when and if such application is allowed. Conflicting applications and offers for mineral leases and permits, except for preference right applicants, filed pursuant to the Mineral Leasing Act, whether filed prior to, simultaneously with, or after the filing of a selection under this part will be rejected when and if the selection is tentatively approved by the authorized officer of the Bureau of Land Management in accordance with paragraph (d) of this section.
(3) Patents will be issued for all selections approved under the act by the authorized officer of the Bureau of Land Management but such patents will not issue unless or until the exterior boundaries of the selected area are officially surveyed.
(4) (i) Where the State selects all the lands in a mineral lease, permit, license, or contract, issued under the Mineral Leasing Acts of 1914 and 1920, the patent issued under the act will convey to the State all mineral deposits in the selected lands. Any such patent shall vest in the State all right, title, and interest of the United States in and to any such lease, permit, license, or contract that remains outstanding on the effective date of the patent, including the right to all rentals, royalties, and other payments accruing after that date under such lease, permit, license, or contract, and including any authority that may have been retained by the United States to modify the terms and conditions of such lease, permit, license, or contract. Issuance of patent will not affect the continued validity of any such lease, permit, license, or contract or any rights arising thereunder.
(ii) Where the State selects a portion of the lands subject to a mineral lease, permit, license, or contract issued under the Mineral Leasing Acts of 1914 and 1920, the patent issued under the act shall reserve to the United States the mineral or minerals subject to that lease, permit, license, or contract, together with such further rights as may be necessary to the full and complete enjoyment of all rights, privileges, and benefits under or with respect to that lease, permit, license, or contracts. Upon the termination of the lease, permit, license, or contract, title to minerals so reserved to the United States shall pass to the State.
(c) Applications for selection. (1) Applications for selection of lands under the act will be made by the proper selecting agent of the State and will be filed, in duplicate, in the proper office of the district in which such selected lands are situated. No special form is required but it must be typewritten and must contain the following information:
(i) A reference to the Act of July 7, 1958 (70 Stat. 709), as supplemented, and a statement that the selection, together with other selections under the act pending or approved, does not exceed 102,550,000 acres (400,000 acres where one of the grants for community purposes is involved).
(ii) A certificate by the selecting agent showing:
( a ) That the selection is made under and pursuant to the laws of the State.
( b ) The acreage selected and the cumulative acreage of all prior selection lists pending and finally approved for clear-listing or patenting.
( c ) His official title and his authority to make the selection on behalf of the State.
( d ) That no portion of the selected land is occupied for any purpose by the United States and that to the best of his knowledge and belief the land is unoccupied, unimproved, and unappropriated by any person claiming the land other than the applicant, and that at the date of the application no part of the land claimed or occupied under the mining laws.
( e ) That the selected land does not extend more than 160 rods along the shore of any navigable water or that such restriction has been waived or should be waived. (§ 2094.2 of this chapter.)
( f ) All the facts relative to medicinal or hot springs or other waters upon the selected lands.
(iii) If the selected lands are surveyed, the legal description of the lands in accordance with official plats of survey.
(iv) If the selected lands are unsurveyed and are described by approved protraction diagrams of the rectangular system of surveys, such description is required.
(v) If the selected lands are unsurveyed and are not described by approved protraction diagrams, a description of the lands and a map or maps, in duplicate, sufficient to permit ready identification of the location, boundaries, and area of the lands.
(2) Selections must be accompanied by a filing fee of $10 for 5,760 acres or fraction thereof in the selection which fee is not returnable.
(3) All selections shall be made in reasonably compact tracts, taking into account the situation and potential uses of the lands involved. A tract will not be considered compact if it excludes other public lands available for selection within its exterior boundary. Each tract selected shall contain at least 5,760 acres unless isolated from other tracts open to selection.
(4) If the selected lands are in the area north and west of the line described in section 10 of the Act, all selection made or confirmed by the act must be accompanied by a statement of the President or his designated representative showing that he approves the selection.
(5) Section 2627.3(a)(1) and (c)(1)(ii) do not apply to the extent that an application embraces a reserved or retained interest.
(d) Effect of approval of selections. Following the selection of lands by the State and the tentative approval of such selection by the authorized officer of the Bureau of Land Management, the State is authorized to execute conditional leases and to make conditional sales of such selected lands pending survey of the exterior boundaries of the selected area, if necessary, and issuance of patent. Said officer will notify the appropriate State official in writing of his tentative approval of a selection after determining that there is no bar to passing legal title to the lands to the State other than the need for the survey of the lands or for the issuance of patent or both.
§ 2627.4   All grants.
(a) State preference right of selection: waivers. (1) The Act of July 7, 1958 (see § 2627.3(a)), provide that upon the revocation of any order of withdrawal in Alaska, the order of revocation shall provide for a period of not less than 90 days before the date on which it otherwise becomes effective during which period the State of Alaska shall have a preferred right of selection under the acts of 1956 and 1958, except as against prior existing valid rights, equitable claims subject to allowance and confirmation and other preferred rights of application conferred by law.
(2) Where the proper selecting agent of the State files in writing in the proper office a waiver of the preference provisions of paragraph (a) of this section in connection with the proposed revocation of an order of withdrawal, the order affecting such revocation will not provide for such preference.
(b) Segregative effect of applications. Lands desired by the State under the regulations of this part will be segregated from all appropriations based upon application or settlement and location, including locations under the mining laws, when the state files its application for selection in the proper office properly describing the lands as provided in § 2627.3(c)(1) (iii), (iv), and (v). Such segregation will automatically terminate unless the State publishes first notice as provided by paragraph (c) of this section within 60 days of service of such notice by the appropriate officer of the Bureau of Land Management.
(c) Publications and protests. (1) The State will be required to publish once a week for five consecutive weeks in accordance with § 1824.4 of this chapter, at its own expense, in a designated newspaper, and in a designated form, a notice allowing all persons claiming the land adversely to file in the appropriate office their objections to the issuance of patent or certification for lands selected under the regulations of this part. A protestant must serve on the State a copy of the objections and furnish evidence of service to the proper office.
(2) The State must file a statement of the publisher, accompanied by a copy of the notice published, showing that publication has been had for the required time.