120
Traverse des Sioux
70
Henderson
60
Fort Ridgley
100
Long Prairie
40
Otter Tail Lake
60
The Salt Springs
120
Fort Ripley
60
Mille Lac City
60
DISTANCES FROM CROW WING.
To Chippeway Mission
15
Ojibeway
50
Superior City
80
Otter Tail City
60
St. Cloud
55
PART IV.
PREEMPTION FOR CITY OR TOWN SITES.
PREEMPTION FOR CITY OR TOWN SITES.
AT a late moment, and while the volume is in press, I am enabled to
present the following exposition of the Preemption Law, addressed to
the Secretary of the Interior by Mr. Attorney-General Cushing. (See
"Opinions of Attorneys General," vol. 7, 733-743 in press.)
PREEMPTION FOR CITY OR TOWN SITES.
Portions of the public lands, to the amount of three hundred and
twenty acres, may be taken up by individuals or preemptioners for city
or town sites.
The same rules as to proof of occupation apply in the case of
municipal, as of agricultural, preemption.
The statute assumes that the purposes of a city or town have
preference over those of trade or of agriculture.
ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE
July 2, 1856.
SIR: Your communication of the 20th May, transmitting papers regarding
Superior City (so called) in the State of Wisconsin, submits for
consideration three precise questions of law; two of them presenting
inquiry of the legal relations of locations for town sites on the
public domain, and the third presenting inquiry of another matter,
which, although pertinent to the case, yet is comprehended in a
perfectly distinct class of legal relations.
I propose, in this communication, to reply only upon the two first
questions.
The act of Congress of April 24, 1841, entitled "An act to appropriate
the proceeds of the sales of the public lands and to grant preemption
rights," contains, in section 10th, the following provisions: "no
lands reserved for the support of schools, nor lands acquired by
either of the two last treaties with the Miami tribe of Indians in the
State of Indiana, or which may be acquired of the Wyandot tribe of
Indians in the State of Ohio, or other Indian reservation to which the
title has been or may be extinguished by the United States at any time
during the operation of this act; no sections of lands reserved to the
United States alternate to other sections of land granted to any of
the States for the construction of any canal, railroad, or other
public improvement; no sections or fractions of sections included
within the limits of any incorporated town; no portions of the public
lands which have been selected for the site of a city or town; no
parcel of a lot of land actually settled or occupied for the purposes
of trade and not agriculture; and no lands on which are situated any
known salines or mines, shall be liable to entry under or by virtue of
this act." (v Stat. at Large, p. 456.)
An act passed May 28, 1844, entitled "An act for the relief of
citizens of towns upon the lands of the United States under certain
circumstances," provides as follows:
