EXCHANGES, LIEU SELECTIONS, AND SCRIP

[Reported, 36 L. D. 278]

PUBLICATION AND POSTING OF NOTICE-SCRIP, WARRANT, CERTIFICATE, SOLDIER'S ADDITIONAL AND LIEU LOCATIONS AND SELECTIONS

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

GENERAL LAND OFFICE, Washington, D. C., February 21, 1908.1

Registers and Receivers, United States Land Offices.

GENTLEMEN: In cases of applications to locate all scrips, warrants, certificates, soldier's additional homestead rights, or to make lieu selections of public lands of the United States, the following requirements will govern on and after April 1, 1908:

1. The location or selection must be accompanied, in addition to the evidence required by existing rules and regulations, by affidavit of the locator, selector, or some credible person possessed of the requisite personal knowledge of the premises, showing that the land located or selected is not in any manner occupied adversely to the locator or selector.

2. You will require the locator or selector, within 20 days from the filing of his location or selection, to begin publication of notice thereof, at his own expense, in a newspaper to be designated by the register as of general circulation in the vicinity of the land, and to be the nearest thereto. Such publication must cover a period of 30 days, during which time a similar notice of the location or selection must be posted in the local land office and upon the lands included in the location or selection, and upon each and every non-contiguous tract thereof."

3. The notice must describe the land located or selected, give the date of location or selection, and state that the purpose thereof is to allow all persons claiming the land adversely, or desiring to show it to be mineral in character, an opportunity to file objection to such location or selection with the local officers for the land district in which the land is situate, and to establish their interest therein, or the mineral character thereof.

4. Proof of publication must consist of an affidavit of the publisher or of the foreman or other proper employee of the newspaper in which the notice was published, with a copy of the publication notice attached. Proof that the notice remained posted upon the land during the entire period of publication, must be made by the locator or selector or some credible person having personal knowledge of the fact.

1 See instructions of Mar. 26, 1908, p. 450, and Oct. 19, 1929, p. 1149. • See instructions of Oct. 19, 1929, p. 1149.

The register will certify to the posting in his office. The first and last days of such publication and posting must in all cases be given. Very respectfully,

R. A. BALLINGER, Commissioner.

Approved February 21, 1908.

JAMES RUDOLPH GARFIELD, Secretary.

[Reported, 36 L. D. 346]

NOTICE OF LOCATION OF WARRANTS, SCRIP, CERTIFICATES, SOLDIERS' ADDITIONAL RIGHTS, ETC.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

GENERAL LAND OFFICE, Washington, D. C., March 26, 1908.

Registers and Receivers, United States Land Offices.

GENTLEMEN: Referring to circular of February 21, 1908 (36 L. D. 278), requiring publication and posting of notice in scrip, warrant, certificate, soldiers' additional cases, and lieu locations and selections, you are advised that this office has no printed forms for publication and posting upon the land, but that such notices may be prepared by you, or by the locator or selector and submitted to you for approval, and should be in substance as follows:

of -, has filed in this office his application to (enter, locate or select), under the provisions of the act of Congress, approved (or sec.

R. S.) the of sec. -, T. - R. Any and all persons claiming adversely the lands described, or desiring to object because of the mineral character of the land, or for any other reason, to the disposal to applicant, should file their affidavits of protest in this office, on or before the of -, 190-.

day

Register.

The date last mentioned in the above notice should be not later than 30 days after the beginning of publication and posting.

A similar notice must be posted in your office during the same period and the register's certificate as to posting should be made on Form 4-227, modified so as to show the first and last dates of such posting.

The affidavit of the locator, selector or entryman as to the nonmineral character of the land and that it is not occupied adversely, should be made upon Form 4-061a, modified by striking out reference to the act of June 4, 1897, in other cases than selections under that act.

Very respectfully,

FRED DENNETT, Commissioner.

[Reported, 38 L. D. 287]

REGULATIONS CONCERNING APPLICATIONS AND SELECTIONS FOR AND FILINGS AND LOCATIONS UPON UNSURVEYED LANDS

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

GENERAL LAND OFFICE,

Washington, D. C., November 3, 1909.

Registers and Receivers, United States Land Offices.

GENTLEMEN: To remedy the confusion and uncertainty arising from applications and selections for and filings and locations upon unsurveyed public lands, you will hereafter reject any such application, selection, filing, or location, under whatsoever law permitted, unless it conforms to the following rules:

1. It must contain a description of the land by metes and bounds, with courses, distances, and reference to monuments by which the location of the tract on the ground can be readily and accurately ascertained. The monuments may be of iron or stone, or of substantial posts well planted in the ground, or of trees or natural objects of a permanent nature, and all monuments shall be surrounded with mounds of stone, or earth when stones are not accessible, and must be plainly marked to indicate with certainty the claim to the tract located. The land must be taken in rectangular form, if practicable, and the lines thereof follow the cardinal points of the compass unless one or more of the boundaries be a stream or other fixed object. In the latter event only the approximate course and distance along such stream or object need be given, but the other boundaries must be definitely stated; and the designation of narrow strips of land along streams, water courses, or other natural objects will not be permitted. 2. The approximate description of the land, by section, township, and range, as it will appear when surveyed must be furnished: or, if this can not be done, an affidavit must be filed setting forth a valid reason therefor.

3. The address of the claimant must be given, and it shall be the duty of the register and receiver, upon the filing of the township plat in their office, to notify him thereof, by registered letter, at such address, and to require the adjustment of the claim to the public survey within 30 days. In default of action by the party notified the register and receiver will promptly adjust the claim and report their - action to the General Land Office.

4. Notice of the application, selection, filing, or location, describing the land as directed in rule 1, must be posted in a conspicuous place upon the land, and a copy of such notice and proof of posting thereof filed with the application, selection, filing, or location. as the case may be.

5. Wherever, under existing regulations, notice of such application, selection, filing, or location is required to be posted elsewhere than upon the land and published in a newspaper, the description of the tract in the posted and published notice must conform to the requirements of rule 1.

Very respectfully, Approved November 3, 1909.

FRED DENNETT, Commissioner.

R. A. BALLINGER, Secretary.

CIRCULAR No. 726

RELATIVE TO THE CERTIFICATION OF ABSTRACTS

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

GENERAL LAND OFFICE, Washington, October 13, 1920.

Registers and Receivers, United States Land Offices.

SIRS: Attention is called to the fact that of late many abstracts have been filed in this office especially in connection with exchanges under the various acts relating to exchange of lands in national forests. These abstracts are certified by an abstract company or by an individual abstracter, neither of whom has complied with that part of section 42 of the mining regulations of August 6, 1915 (44 L. D. 297), which provides that:

No certificate from an abstracter or abstract company will be accepted until approval by the Commissioner of the General Land Office of a favorable report of the chief of field division or United States district attorney whose division or district embraces the land in question as to reliability and responsibility of such abstracter or company.

These regulations must be compiled with by the company or individual before an abstract certified by them can receive official recognition.

You will be careful to see that hereafter these regulations are complied with, calling the same to the attention of all companies or abstracters having business with your office.

Very respectfully,

CLAY TALLMAN, Commissioner.

[Reported, 48 L. D. 595]

CIRCULAR No. 817 2

ACT OF JANUARY 27, 1922, AMENDING SECTION 2372, REVISED STATUTES, RELATIVE TO CHANGE OF ENTRIES

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

GENERAL LAND OFFICE, Washington, D. C., March 22, 1922.

Registers and Receivers, United States Land Offices.

SIRS: An act approved January 27, 1922 (42 Stat. 359), amended section 2372, Revised Statutes, by adding thereto the following:

In all cases where a final entry of public lands has been or may be hereafter canceled, and such entry is held by the Land Department or by a court of competent jurisdiction to have been confirmed under the proviso to section 7 of the Act of March 3, 1891 (Twenty-sixth Statutes, page 1099). if the land has been disposed of to or appropriated by a claimant under the homestead or desert-land laws, or patented to a claimant under other public-land laws, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized, in his discretion, and under rules to be prescribed by him, to change the entry and transfer the payment to any other tract of surveyed public land, nonmineral in character, free from lawful claim,

See Circulars Nos. 967, p. 454, and 1070, p. 455.

and otherwise subject to general disposition: Provided, That the entryman, his heirs, or assigns shall file a relinquishment of all right, title, and interest in and to the land originally entered: Provided further, That no right or claim under the provisions of this paragraph shall be assignable or transferable.

2. An application for the benefits of this act should describe specific tract of nonmineral surveyed public land free from lawful claim and subject to general disposition, and should be accompanied by the formal relinquishment by the entryman, his heirs, or assigns of all right, title, and interest in and to the land in the entry on which the right is based, where application is made by heirs, satisfactory proof of heirship is required. This must be the best evidence that can be obtained, and must show that the parties applying are the heirs and the only heirs of the deceased entryman. Where applications are made by assignees, the applicants must show their interest in the land under the original entryman by furnishing properly authenticated abstracts of title, and they must show, by affidavits or otherwise, that they have not been indemnified by their grantors for the failure of title. The application should also state whether action has been instituted in the courts to have a subsequent entryman of the land in the former entry declared a trustee, and, if so, the status of the litigation.

3. Credit for payments made in connection with the relinquished entry will be allowed, but a tender of any additional sums due for the land applied for must accompany the application.

4. No rights under the act are assignable or transferable.

5. Applications should be suspended and transmitted to the General Land Office with the current monthly returns, and the applicants should be notified of such suspension. After consideration of the application, it will be submitted to the Secretary of the Interior with appropriate recommendations.

6. Applicants for the benefit of the act will be required to begin, within 30 days after notice of allowance, publication of a notice in a newspaper to be designated by the register as of general circulation. in the vicinity of the land, which notice should be substantially as follows:

NOTICE OF CLAIM UNDER SECTION 2372, REVISED STATUTES, AS AMENDED BY THE ACT OF JANUARY 27, 1922

Notice is hereby given that

UNITED STATES LAND OFFICE,

19-. has filed in this office an application under section 2372. Revised Statutes, as amended by the act of January 27, 1922, for, sec.

T.

by the Secretary of the Interior.

R.

and that the same has been allowed

All persons claiming the land adversely or desiring to show it to be mineral in character will be allowed until 19-, to file in this office their objections

to the issuance of patent under the aforesaid application.

Register.

If the notice is published in a daily paper, the publication must be inserted in 30 consecutive issues; if daily except Sunday, in 26; if weekly, in 5 and if semiweekly, in 9. During the period of publication, the notice as published must be posted in the local land office.

• See Instructions of Oct. 19, 1929, p. 1149.