Materials.

public lands adjacent to the line of said road, earth, stone, timber, and other materials for the construction thereof; said right of way is granted to said railroad to the extent of two hundred feet in width on each side of said railroad where it may pass over the public lands, including all necessary grounds for stations, buildings, workshops, and depots, machine shops, switches, side tracks, turntables, Indian titles to and water stations. The United States shall extinguish as rapidly as may be the Indian titles to all lands falling under the operation of this act and required for the said right of way and grants hereinafter made.

be extinguished.

Alternate SECtions of 1 and

pany.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That there be, and is granted to com- hereby, granted to said company, for the purpose of aiding in the construction of said railroad and telegraph line, and to secure the safe and speedy transportation of the mails, troops, munitions of war, and public stores thereon, every alternate section of public land, designated by odd numbers, to the amount of five alternate sections per mile on each side of said railroad, on the line thereof, and within the limits of ten miles on each side of said road, not sold, reserved, or otherwise disposed of by the United States, and to which a preemption or homestead claim may not have attached, at the time the line of said road Mineral lands. is definitely fixed: Provided, That all mineral lands shall be excepted from the operation of this act; but where the same shall contain timber, the timber thereon is hereby Lands, when granted to said company. And all such lands, so granted subject to settle by this section, which shall not be sold or disposed of by said company within three years after the entire road shall have been completed, shall be subject to settlement and preemption, like other lands, at a price not exceeding one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, to be paid to said company,

Timber.

ment, etc.

Patents for lands, when and how to issue.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That whenever said company shall have completed forty consecutive miles of any portion of said railroad and telegraph line, ready for the service contemplated by this act, and supplied with all necessary drains, culverts, viaducts, crossings, sidings, bridges, turnouts, watering places, depots, equipments, furniture, and all other appurtenances of a first class railroad, the rails and all the other iron used in the construction and equipment of said road to be American manufacture of the best quality, the President of the United Commissioners. States shall appoint three commissioners to examine the same and report to him in relation thereto; and if it shall appear to him that forty consecutive miles of said railroad and telegraph line have been completed and equipped in all respects as required by this act, then, upon certificate of said commissioners to that effect, patents shall issue conveying the right and title to said lands to said company, on each side of the road as far as the same is completed, to the amount aforesaid; and patents shall in like manner issue as each forty miles of said railroad and telegraph line are completed, upon certificate of said com

missioners. Any vacancies occurring in said board of commissioners by death, resignation, or otherwise, shall

render statement

be filled by the President of the United States: Provided, company to however, That no such commissioners shall be appointed on oath. by the President of the United States unless there shall be presented to him a statement, verified on oath by the president of said company, that such forty miles have been completed, in the manner required by this act, and setting forth with certainty the points where such forty miles begin and where the same end; which oath shall be taken before a judge of a court of record.

road.

complete

General route

Map to be filed.

SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That said company Company to file shall file their assent to this act, under the seal of said company, in the Department of the Interior, within one year after the passage of this act, and shall complete said To railroad and telegraph from the point of beginning as herein provided, to the western boundary of Nevada Territory before the first day of July, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-four: Provided, That within two years after the passage of this act said company shall designate the general route of said road, as near as may to be designated be, and shall file a map of the same in the Department of in two years. the Interior, whereupon the Secretary of the Interior shall cause the lands within fifteen miles of said designated route or routes to be withdrawn from preemption, private entry, and sale; and when any portion of said route shall be finally located, the Secretary of the Interior shall cause the said lands hereinbefore granted to be surveyed and set off as fast as may be necessary for the purposes herein named: Provided, That in fixing the point of connection of the main trunk with the eastern connections, it shall be fixed at the most practicable point for the construction of the Iowa and Missouri branches, as hereinafter provided.

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Point of junction.

Railroad Com

struct railroad

telegraph

SEC. 9. * * * The Central Pacific Railroad Com-Central Pacific pany of California, a corporation existing under the laws pany may conof the State of California, are hereby authorized to con- and struct a railroad and telegraph line from the Pacific coast, line. at or near San Francisco, or the navigable waters of the Sacramento River, to the eastern boundary of California, upon the same terms and conditions, in all respects, as are contained in this act for the construction of said railroad and telegraph line first mentioned, and to meet and connect with the first mentioned railroad and telegraph line on the eastern boundary of California. Each of said companies shall file their acceptance of the conditions of Companies this act in the Department of the Interior within six this act. months after the passage of this act.

file acceptance of

may continue construction.

Central Pacific SEC. 10. * * and in case said first-named company shall complete their line to the eastern boundary of California before it is completed across said State by the Central Pacific Railroad Company of California, said firstnamed company is hereby authorized to continue in constructing the same through California, with the consent of said State, upon the terms mentioned in this act, until said roads shall meet and connect, and the whole line of said railroad and telegraph is completed; and the Central Pacific Railroad Company of California, after completing its road across said State, is authorized to continue the construction of said railroad and telegraph through the Territories of the United States to the Missouri River, including the branch roads, specified in this act, upon the routes hereinbefore and hereinafter indicated, on the terms and conditions provided in this act in relation to the said Union Pacific Railroad Company, until said roads shall meet and connect, and the whole line of said railroad and branches and telegraph is completed.

Amendments of act of July 1, 1862.

An Act To amend an act entitled "An act to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean, and to secure to the Government the use of the same for postal, military, and other purposes," approved July first, eighteen hundred and sixty-two.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That section three of said act be hereby amended by striking out the word "five, "where the same occurs in said section, and by inserting in lieu thereof the word "ten;" and by striking out the word "ten," where the same occurs in said section, and by inserting in lieu thereof the word "twenty." And section seven of said act is hereby amended by striking out the word "fifteen," where the same occurs in said section, and inserting in lieu thereof the word Mineral land twenty-five." And the term "mineral land," wherever coal and iron. the same occurs in this act, and the act to which this is an amendment, shall not be construed to include coal and iron land. And any lands granted by this act, or the act to which this is an amendment, shall not defeat or impair Preemption, any preemption, homestead, swamp land, or other lawful not claim, nor include any government reservation or mineral

not to

include

homestead, etc., rights

affected.

lands, or the improvements of any bona fide settler, on any lands returned and denominated as mineral lands, and the timber necessary to support his said improvements as a miner, or agriculturist, to be ascertained under such rules as have been or may be established by the commissioner of the general land-office, in conformity Limit to ex with the provisions of the preemption laws: Provided, That the quantity thus exempted by the operation of this act, and the act to which this act is an amendment, shall not exceed one hundred and sixty acres for each settler

emption.

who claims as an agriculturist, and such quantity for each settler who claims as a miner, as the said commissioner may establish by general regulation: Provided, also, That Timber. the phrase "but where the same shall contain timber, the timber thereon is hereby granted to said company," in the proviso to said section three, shall not apply to the timber growing or being on any land farther than ten miles from the centre line of any one of said roads or branches mentioned in said act, or in this act. And all lands shall be Lands granted excluded from the operation of this act, and of the act to included herein. which this act is an amendment, which were located, or selected to be located, under the provisions of an act entitled "an act donating lands to the several states and territories which may provide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts," approved July second, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, and notice thereof given at the proper land-office.

Approved, July 2, 1864 (13 Stat., 356).

NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD.

An Act Granting lands to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from Lake Superior to Puget's Sound, on the Pacific coast, by the northern route.

to colleges not

cific Railroad Co.

May lay out a

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives Northern Paof the United States of America in Congress assembled, incorporated. That [certain persons mentioned] are hereby created and erected into a body corporate and politic, in deed and in law, by the name, style, and title of the "Northern Pacific Railroad Company," * * * And said corpora- railroad and teletion is hereby authorized and empowered to lay out, lo- graph line. cate, construct, furnish, maintain, and enjoy a continuous railroad and telegraph line, with the appurtenances, namely, beginning at a point on Lake Superior, in the State of Minnesota or Wisconsin; thence westerly by the most eligible railroad route, as shall be determined by said company, within the territory of the United States, on a line north of the forty-fifth degree of latitude to some point on Puget's Sound, with a branch, via the valley of the Columbia River, to a point at or near Portland, in the State of Oregon, leaving the main trunk-line at the most suitable place, not more than three hundred miles from its western terminus; and is hereby vested with all the powers, privileges, and immunities necessary to carry into effect the purposes of this act as herein set forth.

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SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the right of way Right of way. through the public lands be, and the same is hereby, granted to said "Northern Pacific Railroad Company,' its successors and assigns, for the construction of a railroad and telegraph as proposed; and the right, power, and authority is hereby given to said corporation to take from

construction.

the public lands, adjacent to the line of said road, material Materials for of earth, stone, timber, and so forth, for the construction thereof. Said way is granted to said railroad to the extent of two hundred feet in width on each side of said railroad where it may pass through the public domain, including all necessary ground for station buildings, workshops, depots, machine shops, switches, side tracks, turn-tables, and water-stations; and the right of way shall be exempt from taxation within the territories of the United States. The United States shall extinguish, as rapidly as may be consistent with public policy and the welfare of the said Indian titles to Indians, the Indian titles to all lands falling under the operation of this act, and acquired in the donation to the (road) named in this bill.

be extinguished.

Grant of public lands.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That there be, and hereby is, granted to the "Northern Pacific Railroad Company," its successors and assigns, for the purpose of aiding in the construction of said railroad and telegraph line to the Pacific coast and to secure the safe and speedy transportation of the mails, troops, munitions of war, and public stores, over the route of said line of railway, every alternate section of public land, not mineral, designated by odd numbers, to the amount of twenty alternate sections per mile, on each side of said railroad line, as said company may adopt, through the territories of the United States, and ten alternate sections of land per mile on each side of said railroad whenever it passes through any state, and whenever on the line thereof, the United States have full title, not reserved, sold, granted, or otherwise appropriated, and free from preemption, or other claims or rights, at the time the line of said road is definitely fixed, and a plat thereof filed in the office of the commissioner of the general land-office; and whenever, prior to said time, any of said sections or parts of sections shall have been granted, sold, reserved, occuLands in lieu of pied by homestead settlers, or preempted, or otherwise disposed of, other lands shall be selected by said company in lieu thereof, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, in alternate sections, and designated by odd numbers, not more than ten miles beyond the limits of said alternate sections: Provided, That if said route. shall be found upon the line of any other railroad route to aid in the construction of which lands have been heretofore granted by the United States, as far as the routes are upon the same general line, the amount of land heretofore granted shall be deducted from the amount granted by this act: Provided, further, That the railroad company receiving the previous grant of land may assign their interest to said Northern Pacific Railroad Company," or may consolidate, confederate, and associate with said company upon the terms named in the first section of Mineral lands this act: Provided, further, That all mineral lands be, and the same are hereby, excluded from the operations of ths act, and in lieu thereof a like quantity of unoccupied anid

those

etc.

excluded.

reserved,