Homestead entrymen will be required to make payment for the lands entered, at the appraised price, which may be cash in full at the date of the acceptance of proof upon their entries, or, at the option of the entryman, payment may be made in five equal installments, the first payment to be made one year after the acceptance of his final proof and the subsequent payments to be made annually thereafter, with interest at the rate of 4 per cent per annum, from date of acceptance of such proof. They will be allowed, however, to pay one or more even installments at any time, with interest to date of such payment. If commutation proof is submitted, payment must be made in full at time of acceptance of proof, when a certificate of entry may be issued. Upon acceptance of 3-year proof, a final certificate may be issued only in case full payment is made; otherwise, the certificate will not be issued until the final payment has been made. Publicity will be given this restoration by giving a copy of these regulations to newspapers for publication, if desired, as an item of news, without incurring expense to the Government. You will also post a copy in your office for a period of at least 60 days prior to June 12, 1920, and will transmit a copy to the postmaster nearest the land for posting in his office. Also transmit a copy to the State land commission. Very respectfully, Approved March 27, 1920. (Appraisement schedule omitted.) CLAY TALLMAN, Commissioner. ALEXANDER T. VOGELSANG, First Assistant Secretary. OPENING OF LANDS IN THE ABANDONED FORT ASSINNIBOINE MILITARY RESERVATION, MONTANA BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES A PROCLAMATION I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the power and authority vested in me by the act of Congress approved February 11, 1915 (38 Stat. 807), do hereby prescribe, proclaim, and make known that all the unreserved lands in the abandoned Fort Assinniboine Military Reservation, in the State of Montana, which have been surveyed and classified under said act of Congress into agricultural lands and coal lands (no timber lands or mineral lands having been found therein), shall be opened to settlement and entry under the homestead laws of the United States, but not to entry or location under sections 2306 and 2307, United States Revised Statutes, and be settled upon, occupied, and entered in the following manner, and not otherwise: 1. Units. To prevent confusion and more readily to dispose of conflicts during the period of simultaneous applications mentioned in paragraph No. 2, the lands, both agricultural and coal, shall, so far as practicable, be arranged in units of approximately 160 acres each, and during said period all applications for these lands shall be filed for a unit or part of a unit, as thus arranged. An application filed during said period for lands embraced in more than one unit shall be rejected. 2. Simultaneous applications.-All persons qualified to make a homestead entry for said lands may file one application for a unit or part of a unit, at the district land office at Havre, Mont., between 9 o'clock a. m., standard time, Wednesday, October 25, 1916, and 12 o'clock noon, on Wednesday, November 15, 1916. All applications filed during said period will be treated as filed simultaneously. Any person having only an additional homestead right for less than 160 acres may file an application for such portion of a unit as he may be entitled to enter, the land to be described according to legal subdivisions. 3. Disposition of applications.-The register of said land office will note on all applications received at or prior to 12 o'clock noon, on November 15, 1916, the date and hour of receipt and whether the land applied for is subject to disposition, according to the land-office records. There shall also be appropriately indicated on a map of the reservation posted for public inspection the tracts for which applications have been filed. Where there is no conflict, such applications, if in proper form and accompanied by the required payments, will be allowed immediately after the close of the period mentioned in paragraph 2. Where there are such conflicting applications, conflicting in whole or in part, the right of the several applicants will be determined by a public drawing, at the United States land office at Havre, Mont., beginning at 10 o'clock a. m., standard time, on Saturday, November 18, 1916, or as soon thereafter as practicable. The names of the conflicting applicants will be written on cards and each of these cards shall be placed in an envelope upon which there is no distinctive or identifying mark. These envelopes shall be thoroughly and impartially mixed, and then drawn, one at a time, by some disinterested person. As the envelopes are drawn, the cards shall be numbered, beginning with No. 1, and fastened to the applications of the respective persons, which shall be the order in which the applications shall be acted upon. If an applicant fails to secure any of the land applied for, his application shall be rejected. If he obtains part but not all of the land applied for, he shall be allowed 30 days from receipt of notice within which to notify the register and receiver whether to allow his application for the part obtained or to reject it in its entirety. If he does not notify the register and receiver within the time allowed, the application will be rejected. 4. Subsequent applications. After the period mentioned in paragraph 2 has expired, applicants may disregard said units in making their applications, and the applications will be disposed of by the register and receiver in the usual way in the order in which they are filed in the district land office. 5. Execution and presentation of applications.-Applications to enter may be executed before the register or the receiver of the United States land office for the district in which the land is situated, or before a United States commissioner, or a judge or a clerk of a court of record residing in the county in which the land is situated, or before any such officer who resides outside the county and in the land district and is nearest and most accessible to the land. All applications must be presented, with the required payment, to the register and receiver in person, by mail, or otherwise. 6. Payments. Each person presenting an application to enter must accompany such application with the required first payment and the land-office fee and commissions. The payment must be made in cash, by a certified check on a national or state bank or trust company which can be cashed without cost to the Government, or by a post-office money order, made payable to the receiver of the land office. No other form of payment will be accepted. If an application is rejected, the money paid will be returned. If an application is allowed in part, the money paid in excess of the required amount will be returned. 7. Price of land.-For lands entered during the first six months subsequent to the date of opening, entrymen shall, in addition to the regular land-office fees and commissions, pay the sum of $2.50 per acre for said land, 50 cents per acre at the time of making entry and 50 cents per acre each and every year thereafter until the full sum of $2.50 per acre, shall have been paid. For lands entered subsequent to said period of six months, the entryman will be required to pay $1.25 per acre for the land, in addition to the regular fee and commissions, 25 cents per acre at the time of making entry and 25 cents per acre each and every year thereafter until the full sum of $1.25 shall have been paid. 8. Fee and commissions.-The regular land-office fee and commissions required on entries of these lands for 40 acres is $6.50; on entries for 80 acres, $8; on entries for 120 acres, $14.50; and on entries for 160 acres, $16. 9. Coal lands.-The schedule indicates that certain lands have been classified as coal lands. These lands are subject to disposition under the homestead laws, but the homestead applicant must agree to a reservation to the United States of the coal deposits therein and of the right in the United States, or those claiming through the United States, to prospect for, mine, and remove the same. The coal deposits shall be subject to disposal by the United States under the coal laws applicable thereto. 10. Enlarged homesteads.-The enlarged homestead act, approved February 19, 1909 (35 Stat. 639), shall not apply to these lands until six months after the lands have been opened to settlement and entry, and not then unless the lands have been designated under the act. 11. Settlement before entry.-No right can be acquired under the provisions of this proclamation by settlement before entry, until after the expiration of the period for filing simultaneous applications, mentioned in paragraph 2, and no right can be acquired by settlement to more than 160 acres, until after the expiration of six months from the date the lands become subject to entry, and until the lands have been designated under the enlarged homestead act. 12. Completion of title.-Title to these lands may be acquired by complying with the three year homestead law, or commutation proof may be submitted on all homestead entries, except entries made under the enlarged homestead act, which are not subject to commutation. In case of commutation of a homestead entry, however, the entryman will be required to pay in addition to the price fixed for entry, the sum of $1.25 per acre as consideration for the privilege of conimutation. 13. Forfeiture for nonpayment and reentry of lands.-In case any entryman fails to make the annual payments, or any of them when due. all right in and to the lands covered by his entry shall cease; and any payments theretofore made shall be forfeited and the entry canceled. In the event of the cancellation of an entry for any cause, the land shall be again subject to entry under the provisions of the homestead law at the price fixed therefor by the former entry; but in all cases the full amount of purchase money must be paid on or before the offer of final proof. 14. Forms, rules and regulations.-The Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to make any necessary additional regulations to carry the provisions of this proclamation and the act of February 11, 1915 (38 Stat. 807) into full force and effect. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the City of Washington this second day of October, in the year of our Lord 1916, and of the independence of the United States the one hundred and forty-first. [SEAL.] By the President: ROBERT LANSING, WOODROW WILSON. Secretary of State. [No. 1348.] [Reported, 50 L. D., 586] CIRCULAR No. 954 EXTENSION OF TIME TO MAKE PAYMENT-FORT ASSINNIBOINE ABANDONED MILITARY RESERVATION DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, Washington, July 22, 1924. REGISTER AND RECEIVER, Havre, Mont. GENTLEMEN: Public Resolution No. 29, entitled "Joint resolution providing an extension of time for payment by entrymen of lands on the Fort Assinniboine abandoned military reservation, in the State of Montana," which was approved June 7, 1924 (43 Stat. 666), reads as follows: That the act of January 6, 1921 (Forty-first Statutes at Large, page 1086), providing additional time for the payment of purchase money under homestead entries within the former Fort Assinniboine Military Reservation, in Montana, be, and the same is hereby, amended so as to authorize extensions of time from year to year for the payment of all unpaid principal upon the payment of interest thereon in advance at the rate specified in the said act, for not to exceed 10 years from date of entry. The said act applies to the lands in the Fort Assinniboine abandoned military reservation, which was opened to entry on November 15, 1916, under the act of February 11, 1915 (38 Stat. 807). The act of January 6, 1921 (41 Stat. 1086), and regulations thereunder, Circular 739 (48 L. D. 35) provided for an extension of time to make payment for one year by paying interest at 5 per cent per annum on the unpaid installments due before the date of the act. The unpaid installment due within the year subsequent to the date of the act could be extended for one year by paying interest thereon as above. The installments above extended could be further extended for a period of one year in like manner in the discretion of the Secretary of the Interior. Circular No. 899 suspended action on the meritorious cases where entrymen were unable to make payment for not exceeding one year, pending action by Congress, and Circular 914, issued February 8, 1924, allowed extensions of time to make payment of installments due until December 31, 1924. The circulars required that the entrymen file affidavits corroborated by two other persons showing the reason why payment was not made. Interest was not required to be paid in the case of extensions of time to make payment granted under the said circulars. The above act of January 6, 1921, and Circular 739 were amended by this act so that the extensions may be granted from year to year, though not for more than one year at a time, and extensions are limited to 10 years from the date of entry. Entrymen desiring an extension of time under this act should apply therefor and accompany the application with the required amount of interest at the rate of 5 per cent per annum, on the unpaid installments. You will grant the extensions when the interest required is paid, and note on the records period of extension and that the interest was paid in conformity with this act. Forward the application to this office. Interest will be collected on any installment for the period it was extended under the above circulars Nos. 899 and 914. Very respectfully, Approved July 22, 1924. WILLIAM SPRY, Commissioner. FORT BRIDGER (EVANSTON LAND DISTRICT), FORT SANDERS, FORT LARAMIE (POST) MILITARY RESERVATIONS, AND FORT LARAMIE WOOD RESERVATION (CHEYENNE LAND DISTRICT)RIGHT TO PURCHASE PASTURE AND GRAZING LAND THEREIN. HOMESTEAD LAW EXTENDED TO FORT LARAMIE WOOD RESERVATION INSTRUCTIONS DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, REGISTERS AND RECEIVERS, GENERAL LAND OFFICE, Washington, D. C., September 8, 1902.2 Cheyenne and Evanston, Wyo. SIRS: Your attention is called to the act of May 31, 1902 (32 Stat. 283), entitled: An act granting homesteaders on the abandoned Fort Bridger, Fort Sanders, and Fort Laramie military reservations and Fort Laramie Wood Reservation, in Wyoming, the right to purchase one quarter section of public land on said reservations as pasture or grazing land, and for other purposes, a copy of which is hereto attached. The act extends the homestead law to the abandoned Fort Laramie Wood Reservation. Lands in the Fort Bridger (post) Reservation were made subject to disposal under the provisions of the homestead law by act of August 23. 1894 (28 Stat. 491), and in Fort Laramie (post) and Fort Sanders under the homestead law by act of July 10, 1890 (26 Stat. 227). Amended by instructions of Jan. 29. 1912, p. 9. |