Claims can be initiated upon National Forest lands under (1) the Act of June 11, 1906, (2) under the mining laws, and (3) under the coal land laws. In connection with these claims it is the duty of the Forest Service to examine them, but the determination of questions involving title is within the jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Interior.
It is the purpose of the Forest Service to protect the lands of the United States within the National Forests from acquisition by those who do not seek them for purposes recognized by law. When it is apparent that an entry or a claim is not initiated in good faith and in compliance with the spirit of the law under which it was asserted, but is believed from the facts to be a subterfuge to acquire title to timber land, or to control range privileges, water, a water-power site, or rights of way; or if it otherwise interferes with the interests of the National Forests in any way, the Forest Service recommends a contest, even if the technical requirements of the law appear to have been fulfilled. It is bad faith, for instance, to hold a mining or agricultural claim primarily for the timber thereon or to acquire a site valuable for water power development.
The National Forest Homestead Act. At the present time there is very little, if any, fraud connected with the Forest Homestead Act because the land is classified before it is opened to entry. The greater part of the work dealing with fraudulent claims is a relic of the old régime. Before the Forests were established many Homestead and Timber and Stone entries were made for the purpose of securing valuable timber. A large number of persons resorted to settlement in order to secure the preference right. It was the common custom in those days for land cruisers to locate men on heavily timbered land either before or immediately after survey and before the filing of the plats and the opening of the land to entry. A cabin would be built upon the land and some unsubstantial improvements made. When the National Forests were created they contained great numbers of these squatters' cabins. Many were abandoned but others attempted to secure title. Under the old Timber and Stone Act timber could be secured for $2.50 per acre, but the National Forests are not subject to entry under this act. So as a last resort the squatters tried to prove up on the land under the Homestead law. When the Forests were created the Service found a great many of these fraudulent claims on their books, many of which were being brought up annually for patent. Between December, 1908, and June 30, 1913, a total of 498 entries for National Forest land were canceled in a single administrative district. These entries represented fraudulent efforts to secure title to 85,906 acres of National Forest land for speculative purposes, involving nearly a billion feet of merchantable timber. During the fiscal year 1913 alone 300,000,000 board feet of merchantable timber in one district was retained in public ownership primarily because the Forest officers brought out the facts. The lands in all cases were covered with heavy stands of timber, very small portions of the land had been cleared, the claimant's residence on the land was not in compliance with the law, seldom was any crop raised on the land, and the claimant in other ways did not carry out the intent of the law.
The Act of June 11, 1906, known as the National Forest Homestead Act, provides for the acquisition by qualified entrymen of agricultural lands within National Forests. The Act is in effect an extension of the general provisions of the Homestead laws to the agricultural lands within the National Forests, with the essential difference that the land must be classified by the Secretary of Agriculture as chiefly valuable for agriculture.
This Act authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture in his discretion to examine and ascertain, upon application or otherwise, the location and extent of lands both surveyed and unsurveyed in the National Forests, chiefly valuable for agriculture, which may be occupied for agricultural purposes without injury to the National Forests or public interests. He is authorized to list and describe such lands by metes and bounds or otherwise and to file such lists and descriptions with the Secretary of the Interior for opening to entry in accordance with the provisions of the Act. Agricultural lands listed by the Secretary of Agriculture are opened by the Secretary of the Interior to homestead entry in tracts not exceeding 160 acres at the expiration of 60 days from the filing of the lists in the local Land Office. Notice of the filing of the list is posted in the local Land Office and is published for a period of not less than four weeks in a local newspaper. The Act provides that the person upon whose application the land is examined and listed, if a qualified entryman, shall have the preference right of entry. To exercise this preference right, application to enter must be filed in the local Land Office within 60 days after the filing of the list in that office. The entryman can perfect his title to the land within a certain period of years by fulfilling certain conditions of residence and cultivation.
By the Act of June 6, 1912, known as the "Three Year Homestead Act," the period of residence necessary to be shown in order to entitle a person to patent under the Homestead laws is reduced from 5 to 3 years and the period within which a homestead entry may be completed is reduced from 7 to 5 years. The new law requires the claimant to cultivate not less than 1/16 of the area of his entry beginning with the second year of entry and not less than 1/8 beginning with the third year and until final proof, except that in the case of the enlarged Homestead laws, double the areas given are required. On a 160-acre claim, therefore, it is required that 1/8 or 20 acres be under cultivation. A mere breaking of the soil does not meet the requirements of the statute, but such breaking of the soil must be accompanied by planting and sowing of seed and tillage for a crop other than native grasses. The period within which the cultivation should be made is reckoned from the date of the entry. The Secretary of the Interior, however, is authorized upon a satisfactory showing therefor to reduce the required area of cultivation on account of financial disabilities or misfortunes of the entryman or on account of special physical and climatic conditions of the land which make cultivation difficult. The entryman must establish an actual residence upon the land entered, 6 months after the date of the entry. After the establishment of residence the entryman is permitted to be absent from the land for one continuous period of not more than 5 months in each year following. He must also file at the local Land Office notice of the beginning of such intended absence.
The Mining Laws. Mineral deposits within National Forests are open to development exactly as on unreserved public land. A prospector can go anywhere he chooses and stake a claim wherever he finds any evidences of valuable minerals. The only restriction is that mining claims must be bona fide ones and not taken up for the purpose of acquiring valuable timber or a town or a water power site, or to monopolize the water supply of a stock range. Prospectors may obtain a certain amount of National Forest timber free of charge to be used in developing their claims. More than 500 mining claims are patented within the National Forests every fiscal year.
A good example of mining claims located for fraudulent purposes were those located on the rim and sides of the Grand Canyon in Arizona to prevent the people from gaining free access to the canyon and make them pay to enter it. These claims were shown to be fraudulent since no deposits of any kind were ever found on them. They were canceled by the higher courts and the land reverted to the people.
Coal-Land Laws. Coal lands are mineral lands and as such are subject to entry the same as other mineral lands in the National Forests.