# United States Statutes at Large/Volume 3/16th Congress/1st Session/Chapter 123

Chap. CXXIII.—An Act to authorize the appointment of commissioners to lay out the road therein mentioned.
Whereas, by the continuation of the Cumberland road from Wheeling in the state of Virginia, through the states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, the lands of the United States may become more valuable—
The President to appoint three commissioners, not citizens of Ohio, Indiana, or Illinois, to examine the country between Wheeling and a point on the Mississippi, &c. and to lay out a road.Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President of the United States be, and he is hereby, authorized to appoint three impartial and judicious persons, not being citizens of any of the states aforesaid, to be commissioners, and, in case of the death or resignation of any of them, to appoint other and like persons in their place, who shall have power carefully to examine the country, between Wheeling, in the state of Virginia, and a point on the left bank of the Mississippi river, to be chosen by said commissioners, between St. Louis and the mouth of the Illinois river, and to lay out a road from Wheeling aforesaid, to the point so to be chosen on the left bank of the river Mississippi; the said road to be on a straight line, or as nearly so as, having a due regard to the condition and situation of the ground and water-courses over which the same shall be laid out, shall beSurveyors, chain-bearers, &c. Lands for the road reserved from sales. Road to be 80 feet wide, &c. A plan of the road to be made out. Roads to be divided into sections, with notice of materials for making each, and expense. deemed expedient and practicable. And said commissioners shall have power to employ able surveyors, chain-bearers, and other necessary assistants, in laying out said road; and so much of the lands of the United States as may be included within the same, shall be, and is hereby, reserved and excepted from the sales of the public lands. The said road to be eighty feet wide, and designated by marked trees, stakes, or other conspicuous monuments, at the distance of every quarter of a mile, and at every angle of deviation from a straight line. And the said commissioners shall cause to be made, and delivered to the President of the United States, an accurate plan of said road, so laid out by them as aforesaid, with a written report of their proceedings, describing therein the state lines crossed, and the marks, monuments, courses, and distances, by which the said road shall be designated; describing also, the water-courses, and the nature and quality of the ground over which the same shall be laid out; they shall, moreover, divide said road into sections of not more than ten, nor less than five, miles long, noticing the materials that may be used in making, and giving an estimate of the expense of making, each section of the road aforesaid.
10,000 dolls. appropriated for laying out the road.Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That ten thousand dollars, to be paid out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, be, and are hereby, appropriated to defray the expense of laying out the road aforesaid.
Approved, May 15, 1820.