# United States Statutes at Large/Volume 5/25th Congress/2nd Session/Chapter 176

Chap. CLXXVI.—An Act to establish additional land offices in the States of Louisiana and Arkansas.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,A land office to be established in Natchitoches. That for the disposal of that portion of the lands belonging to the United States in the State of Louisiana, within the following boundaries, to wit: beginning at the point on the Sabine river, where the base line or thirty-first degree of north latitude strikes the same; thence up said river to the point where the boundary line between the United States of Mexico and the aforesaid State of Louisiana shall leave the same; thence with said boundary, when the same shall be finally fixed, to the northern boundary of the State; thence east with said northern boundary to the dividing line between ranges three and four west; thence with said dividing line south to the base line or thirty-first degree of north latitude; thence with said line to the beginning: a land office shall be established and kept in the town of Natchitoches, to be known as the office for the Northwestern land district in the State of Louisiana.
Register and receiver to be appointed; their bonds, salaries and duties.Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That a register and receiver of public moneys shall be appointed for said land district in the manner required by law, who shall reside in the town of Natchitoches; they shall give bond and security in the same manner and in the same sums, as other registers and receivers in said State; and their salaries, emoluments, duties and authority shall in every respect be the same, in relation to the lands in the aforesaid district as are now given or granted to the registers and receivers in the other land offices in said State.
During the continuance of act of 22d June, 1838, ch. 119, the register and receiver shall attend at Shreeveport, &c.Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That during the continuance of the act entitled “An act to grant pre-emption rights to settlers on the public lands,” approved June twenty-second, in the year eighteen hundred and thirty-eight, the register and receiver of the aforesaid land district shall attend at least once in two months if necessary at Shreeveport in said district for the purpose of receiving proof of and acting on such claims for pre-emption rights, as may be presented to them under said act, and remain at said place as long as may be necessary not exceeding two weeks at a time, and said register and receiver shall give public notice for at least two weeks of the time they will attend at said place.
Commissioners of General Land Office to direct how the office shall be supplied with plats, &c.Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That the Commissioner of the General Land Office is hereby invested with authority to direct in what manner and on what conditions the said land office shall be supplied with plats and copies of plats and surveys from the offices now ​established at Monroe and Opelousas, and the office of the Surveyor General of Louisiana.
What portion of Fayetteville district shall be called in the Western district.Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That all portion of the present Fayetteville district which lies south of the line between townships eleven and twelve north of the principal base line, shall form a separate land district, and be called the Western land district, and the land office for said district shall be established at the county seat of Johnson county or such other place as the President of the United States shall designate.
Register and receiver to be appointed. Their compensation.Sec. 6. And be it further enacted, That there shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, under the existing laws, a register and receiver in and for said district, whose compensation shall be the same as provided for other registers and receivers; and it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury, as soon as it can be done, to cause the necessary tract books, plats, maps and surveys of the public lands, in said district, to be filed in said office; and all applications for entries in said district shall be made as heretofore prescribed by law at the land offices now established, until the first day of June next.
Approved, July 7, 1838.