Opinion ID: 170734
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Stock-Raising Homestead Act of 1916

Text: All land patents issued by the United States under the Stock-Raising Homestead Act are subject to an express reservation of mineral rights in favor of the United States. The Stock-Raising Homestead Act, the last of the great homestead acts, provided for the settlement of homesteads on lands the surface of which was 'chiefly valuable for grazing and raising crops' and `not susceptible of irrigation from any known source of water supply.' Western Nuclear, 462 U.S. at 37, 103 S.Ct. 2218 (quoting 43 U.S.C. § 292 (1976 ed.)). Congress's purpose was to bifurcate the surface and mineral rights to facilitate concurrent development. Id. at 50, 103 S.Ct. 2218. It would, thus, have made little sense to give minerals to stock raisers.