58 NATIONAL FOREST MANUAL LAWS. 



Transmission lines, etc. The authority to grant fifty-year easements 

 for transmission and other lines under the act of March 4, 1911 (36 

 Stat., 1235), is vested in the Secretary of Agriculture when and in so 

 far as the lands affected constitute portions of the National Forests. 

 (29 Op. Atty. Gen., 303.) 



Telegraph lines. The act of July 24, 1866 (now Rev. Stat., sec. 

 5263), granting rights of way for telegraph lines does not apply to 

 National Forest lands. (1 Sol. Op., 266, 452.) 



INDIAN ALLOTMENTS IN NATIONAL FORESTS. 



Act June 25, 1910 (36 Stat., 855), relating to Indian allotments, etc. 



Persons entitled SEC. 31. That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized, 



to allotments. in hig discretion, to make allotments within the National Forests in 

 conformity with the general allotment laws as amended by section [16] 

 of this act, to any Indian occupying, living on, or having improve- 

 ments on land included within any such National Forest who is not 

 entitled to an allotment on any existing Indian reservation, or for 

 whose tribe no reservation has been provided, or whose reservation 

 Applications to wa s not sufficient to afford an allotment to each member thereof. All 



c^tufe 17 f Agn ~ applications for allotments under the provisions of this section shall 

 be submitted to the Secretary of Agriculture, who shall determine 

 whether the lands applied for are more valuable for agricultural or 

 grazing purposes than for the timber found thereon; and if it be found 

 that the lands applied for are more valuable for agricultural or grazing 



retarv o?the ln purposes, then the Secretary of the Interior shall cause allotment to 



rior. ' be made as herein provided. 1 



TOWNSITES. 



Section 2286 and sections 2380 to 2394, inclusive, Revised Statutes, 

 provide methods of acquiring public land for town-site purposes on the 

 vacant unreserved lands of the United States. 



Act of March 3, 1877 (19 Stat., 392), provides for additional town sites. 



Act March 3, 1891 (26 Stat., 1101), provides for town sites on mineral 

 lands. 



There are also various acts applicable to individual States. See 

 circular Department of Interior of August 7, 1909 (38 L. D., 92). 



A town site actually settled and occupied before the creation of a 

 National Forest is excepted from the proclamation, even though the 

 land is unsurveyed; and an occupant of lands within the town site 

 can not be required to take out a forest service permit. (2 Sol. Op., 

 726.) 



ADMINISTRATIVE SITES. 



The withdrawal of an administrative site riparian to a stream does 

 not of itself reserve water for administrative uses on such site ; and the 

 right to such water can be secured only by appropriation under the 

 State laws. (1 Sol. Op., 590.) 



The establishment of a forest reserve does not contemplate the 

 actual use or occupancy of any particular tract within the designated 

 boundaries of the reserve; hence there is no incongruity in providing 

 that, after the creation of the reserve, lands may be prospected, and, 

 if shown to be mineral in character, located and entered under the 

 mining laws. The purposes for which the withdrawal now proposed to 

 be made (administrative site) contemplates and requires the actual use 

 and occupancy of each tract and the expenditure of money upon each 

 or most of such tracts, and this of necessity excludes the operation of 

 any other claim. Land not known at the time to be mineral in char- 

 acter may be devoted to purposes recognized by law as proper in the 

 aid of the objects sought to be attained by establishment of forest 

 reserves, or coming within the purview of the appropriation acts for 

 protection and administration of such reserves and subsequent discov- 

 ery of mineral therein will not affect its use for those purposes or render 



1 This section does not apply to the Minnesota National Forest. (Letter Secretary 

 of the Interior to Secretary of Agriculture, Sept. 27, 1912.) 



