Regulations last checked for updates: Nov 25, 2024

Title 43 - Public Lands: Interior last revised: Sep 06, 2024
§ 2562.0-3 - Authority.

Section 10 of the Act of May 14, 1898 (30 Stat. 413, as amended August 23, 1958 (72 Stat. 730; 43 U.S.C. 687a), authorizes the sale at the rate of $2.50 per acre of not exceeding 80 acres of land in Alaska possessed and occupied in good faith as a trade and manufacturing site. The lands must be nonmineral in character, except that lands that may be valuable for coal, oil, or gas deposits are subject to disposition under the Act of March 8, 1922 (42 Stat. 415; 48 U.S.C. 376-377), as amended, and the regulations of § 2093.4 of this chapter.

§ 2562.1 - Initiation of claim.

(a) Notice. Any qualified person, association, or corporation initiating a claim on or after April 29, 1950, under section 10 of the Act of May 14, 1898, by the occupation of vacant and unreserved public land in Alaska for the purposes of trade, manufacture, or other productive industry, must file notice of the claim for recordation in the proper office for the district in which the land is situated, within 90 days after such initiation. Where on April 29, 1950, such a claim was held by a qualified person, association, or corporation, the claimant must file notice of the claim in the proper office, within 90 days from that date.

(b) Form of notice. The notice must be filed on a form approved by the Director in triplicate if the land is unsurveyed, or in duplicate if surveyed, and shall contain:

(1) The name and address of the claimant, (2) age and citizenship, (3) date of occupancy, and (4) the description of the land by legal subdivisions, section, township and range, if surveyed, or, if unsurveyed, by metes and bounds with reference to some natural object or permanent monument, giving, if desired, the approximate latitude and longitude. The notice must designate the kind of trade, manufacture, or other productive industry in connection with which the site is maintained or desired.

(c) Failure to file notice. Unless a notice of the claim is filed within the time prescribed in paragraph (a) of this section no credit shall be given for occupancy of the site prior to filing of notice in the proper office, or application to purchase, whichever is earlier.

(d) Recording fee. The notice of the claim must be accompanied by a remittance of $10.00, which will be earned and applied as a service charge for recording the notice, and will not be returnable, except in cases where the notice is not acceptable to the proper office for recording, because the land is not subject to the form of disposition specified in the notice.

§ 2562.2 - Qualifications of applicant.

An application must show that the applicant is a citizen of the United States and 21 years of age, and that he has not theretofore applied for land as a trade and manufacturing site. If such site has been applied for and the application not completed, the facts must be shown. If the application is made for an association of citizens or a corporation, the qualifications of each member of the organization must be shown. In the case of a corporation, proof of incorporation must be established by the certificate of the officer having custody of the records of incorporation at the place of its formation and it must be shown that the corporation is authorized to hold land in Alaska.

§ 2562.3 - Applications.

(a) Execution. Application for a trade and manufacturing site should be executed in duplicate and should be filed in the proper office. It need not be sworn to, but it must be signed by the applicant and must be corroborated by the statements of two persons.

(b) Fees. All applications must be accompanied by an application service fee of $10 which will not be returnable.

(c) Time for filing. Application to purchase a claim, along with the required proof or showing, must be filed within 5 years after the filing of notice of the claim.

(d) Contents. The application to enter must show:

(1) That the land is actually used and occupied for the purpose of trade, manufacture or other productive industry when it was first so occupied, the character and value of the improvements thereon and the nature of the trade, business or productive industry conducted thereon and that it embraces the applicant's improvements and is needed in the prosecution of the enterprise. A site for a prospective business cannot be acquired under section 10 of the Act of May 14, 1898 (30 Stat. 413; 43 U.S.C. 687a).

(2) That no portion of the land is occupied or reserved for any purpose by the United States or occupied or claimed by natives of Alaska; that the land is unoccupied, unimproved, and unappropriated by any person claiming the same other than the applicant.

(3) That the land does not abut more than 80 rods of navigable water.

(4) That the land is not included within an area which is reserved because of springs thereon. All facts relative to medicinal or other springs must be stated, in accordance with § 2311.2(a) of this chapter.

(5) That no part of the land is valuable for mineral deposits other than coal, oil, or gas, and that at the date of location no part of the land was claimed under the mining laws.

(e) Description of land. If the land be surveyed, it must be described in the application according to legal subdivisions of the public-land surveys. If it be unsurveyed, the application must describe it by approximate latitude and longitude and otherwise with as much certainty as possible without survey.

§ 2562.4 - Survey.

(a) If the land applied for be unsurveyed and no objection to its survey is known to the authorizing officer, he will furnish the applicant with a certificate stating the facts, and, after receiving such certificate, the applicant may make application to the State Director for the survey of the land. Upon receipt of an application, the State Director will, if conditions make such procedure practicable and no objection is shown by his records, furnish the applicant with an estimate of the cost of field and office work, and upon receipt of the deposit required will issue appropriate instructions for the survey of the claim, such survey to be made not later than the next surveying season. The sum so deposited by the applicant for survey will be deemed an appropriation thereof and will be held to be expended in the payment of the cost of the survey, including field and office work, and upon the acceptance of the survey any excess over the cost shall be repaid to the depositor or his legal representative.

(b) In case it is decided that by reason of the inaccessibility of the locality embraced in an application for the survey, or by reason of other conditions, it will result to the advantage of the Government or claimant to have the survey executed by a deputy surveyor, the State Director will deliver an order to the applicant for such survey, which will be sufficient authority for any deputy surveyor to make a survey of the claim.

(c) In the latter contingency the survey must be made at the expense of the applicant, and no right will be recognized as initiated by such application unless actual work on the survey is begun and carried to completion without unnecessary delay.

§ 2562.5 - Publication and posting.

The instructions given in subpart 1824 of this chapter, relative to publication and posting.

§ 2562.6 - Form of entry.

Claims initiated by occupancy after survey must conform thereto in occupation and application, but if the public surveys are extended over the lands after occupancy and prior to application, the claim may be presented in conformity with such surveys, or, at the election of the applicant, a special survey may be had.

§ 2562.7 - Patent.

The application and proofs filed therewith will be carefully examined and, if all be found regular, the application will be allowed and patent issued upon payment for the land at the rate of $2.50 per acre, and in the absence of objections shown by his records.

authority: 43 U.S.C. 1629g(e)
cite as: 43 CFR 2562.5