LANDS OCCUPANCY. 93 



SPECIAL-USE PERMITS. 



Permits for summer homes, hotels, stores, etc. 



Act of March 4, 1915 (38 Stat, 1101). 



That hereafter the Secretary of Agriculture may, upon such terms 

 as he may deem proper, for periods not exceeding thirty years, per- 

 mit responsible persons or associations to use and occupy suitable 

 spaces or portions of ground in the national forests for the construc- 

 tion of summer homes, hotels, stores, or other structures needed for 

 recreation or public convenience, not exceeding five acres to any one 

 person or association, but this shall not be construed to interfere with 

 the right to enter homesteads upon agricultural lands in national 

 forests as now provided by law. 



Special-use permit for land adjacent to mineral springs. 



Act of February 28, 1899 (30 Stat., 908). 



The Secretary of the Interior * * * hereby is authorized, 

 under such rules and regulations as he from time to time may make, 

 to enter or lease to responsible persons or corporations applying 

 therefor suitable spaces and portions of ground near, or adjacent to, 

 mineral, medicinal, or other springs, within any forest reserves estab- 

 lished within the United States, or hereafter to be established, and 

 where the public is accustomed or desires to frequent, for health or 

 pleasure, for the purpose of erecting upon such leased ground sani- 

 tariums or hotels, to be opened for the reception of the public. And 

 he is further authorized to make such regulations, for the convenience 

 of people visiting such springs, with reference to spaces and loca- 

 tions, for the erection of tents or temporary dwelling houses to be 

 erected or constructed for the use of those visiting such springs for 

 health or pleasure. And the Secretary of the Interior is authorized 

 to prescribe the terms and duration and the compensation to be paid 

 for the privileges granted under the provisions of this act. 



DECISIONS. 



A special-use permit for the use of lands for a summer home re- 

 mains in full force and effect and gives .the permittee complete right 

 of possession and use as against subsequent locators of a mining 

 claim. (Le Roy et al. v. Swanson; unpublished findings of the 

 county court of Colorado for Clear Creek County, Feb. 6, 1912.) 



The waters of mineral, medicinal, and saline springs on the public 

 domain are under the sole control of the United States, as a land- 

 owner, and are not subject to appropriation under State laws or to 

 the riparian right to continued flow. (2 Sol. Op., 951.) 



Authority to administer the act of 1899 as to springs and lands in 

 the National Forests passed to the Secretary of Agriculture under 

 the forest transfer act of February 1, 1905. (Id.) 



The said act does not authorize a lease of the springs themselves or 

 the granting of special privileges therein. Nor does it contemplate a 

 lease of all the available hotel or sanitarium sites to one party. (Id.) 



The mineral springs act of February 28, 1899, extends to National 

 Forests in Alaska. (2 Sol. Op., 870.) 



National Forest lands in Alaska surrounding hot or mineral 

 springs, and which have been withdrawn by the President under the 



