CHAPTER LXXXIII. PUBLIC LANDS. [Revised Statutes, Chap. LXXII.] Paramount right of of United States to 2124. SECTION 1. Conceding to the United States of America the primary and paramount right to dispose the soil of this state, according to the laws existing or be enacted by congress, and full and complete exemption from every form of taxation of their property, it is hereby declared that as between all the good citizens now residing in, or who shall hereafter come to reside in this state, and as between them, or any of them, and others, having or claiming, or now or hereafter pretending to have or claim, any right to occupy, possess and enjoy any portion of the public domain situate within the boundaries of this state, and as between each and every of them, and all other persons, associations, corporations and powers, except the government of the United States of America, the right as the same may exist under the local laws, to occupy, possess and enjoy any tract or portion thereof, shall be respected in law and equity in all the courts and tribunals of this state. to dispose of the soil of this state; rights of citizens to occupy and possess the same under local laws. Right of occu manifested. 2125. SEC. 2. All rights of occupancy, possession and enjoyment of any tract or portion of the said public do- pancy, etc.; how main, except mining claims, acquired after the adoption of this chapter, shall be expressed and described in a declaration, in cases of original occupation, and by a deed in cases of purchase, duly acknowledged by some officer authorized to take acknowledgments of deeds, and recorded in the office of the recorder of the county in which the land is situated. Sale of claim or 2126. SEC. 3. The owner of every claim or improve-, ment, on every tract or parcel of land, has a transferable improvement on public land. interest therein, which may be sold in execution or otherwise; and any sale of such improvement is a sufficient consideration to sustain a promise. 2127. SEC. 4. All rights of occupancy, possession and enjoyment of any tract or portion of the said public domain, acquired before the seventh day of November, A. D. 1861, shall be ascertained, adjudged and determined by the pancy heretofore existing; by what laws to be adjudged. Rights of occu- local law of the district or precinct in which such tract is situated, as it existed on the day when such rights were acdetermined and quired, or as it thereafter may have existed; and if there were no local laws at that time, then by the common custom then prevailing in respect to such property in the district or precinct in which it existed. All such rights of occupancy, possession and enjoyment, acquired since the said seventh day of November, A. D. 1861, shall be ascer tained, adjudged and determined by the laws of this state in force at the date of such acquisition. Form of declara 2128. SEC. 5. The declaration of an occupant of a tion of occupant. tract or portion of the public domain, required by the sec ond section of this chapter, shall be substantially in the following form: What to be re ceived as evi dence of regu To all whom these presents may concern: Know ye, that I, A. B., of, in the county of in the state of Colorado, do hereby declare and publish as a legal notice to all the world, that I have a valid right to the occupation, possession and enjoyment of all and singu lar that tract or parcel of land, not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres, situate, lying and being in the township of -, in the county of in the state of Colorado, bounded and described as follows: (here insert the description,) together with all and singular, the hereditaments and appurtenances thereunto belonging or in anywise appertain ing. day of in the (To be Witness my hand and seal, this year one thousand eight hundred and subscribed with the full christian and surname of the person making the application, and acknowledged in the same manner as a deed of real estate.) 2129. SEC. 6. In all legal or equitable proceedings hereafter instituted in any court in this state, the record of larity of deed, any declaration, deed or mortgage, or other muniments of burden of proof right, referred to in the third and fifth sections of this chapto be upon party ter, shall be received, except as against the United States. declaration, etc.; of irregularity objecting. and all persons claiming under the United States, as presumptive evidence of the regularity of the paper itself, under the local law or custom existing at the time of its exe cution; and if the regularity thereof shall be challenged, the burden of proving the alleged irregularity shall rest upon the party making the challenge. Gold and silver included in occupant. 2130. SEC. 7. The declaration of every occupant of any tract or portion of the public domain, mentioned in lodes not to be section five of this chapter, shall not be construed to in- declaration of clude any gold-bearing quartz lodes, silver lodes or gold diggings; but said lodes and diggings shall be excepted from the tract of said occupant, and shall be subject to be occupied, possessed and enjoyed as hereinafter provided. What actions 2131. SEC. 8. Any person settled upon any of the public lands belonging to the United States may maintain tres- for injuries to pass quare clausum fregit, trespass, ejectment, forcible entry be maintained. · and detainer, unlawful detainer and forcible detainer, for injuries done to the possession thereof. Extent of bound sory right of 2132. SEC. 9. On the trial of any such cause the possession or possessory right of the plaintiff shall be considered as aries of possesextending to the boundaries embraced by the claim of such plaintiff. plaintiff, so as to enable him to have and maintain either of the aforesaid actions, without being compelled to prove an actual inclosure. Provided, that each claim shall not exceed in any case one hundred and sixty acres of land. Boundaries of marked; what cient to enable 2133. SEC. 10. Every such claim, to entitle the holder to maintain either of the aforesaid actions, shall be marked claim to be out so that the boundaries thereof may be readily traced, occupancy suffiand the extent of such claim easily known; and no per- party to main'son shall be entitled to maintain either of said actions for possession of, or injury done to, any claim, unless he occupy the same, or shall have made improvements thereon to the value of one hundred dollars. tain action. as abandoninent 2134. SEC. II. A neglect to occupy such claim, or to what considered inclose at least five acres with a reasonable fence, or plough of claim. at least five acres of the same for the period of six months, shall be considered such an abandonment as to preclude the claimants from maintaining either of the aforesaid actions. 2135. SEC. 12. Any person who may have a title to occupy any lot or lots within any city or village plot, or any lots or mining claim within any mining district in this state in virtue of a certificate, deed of gift or purchase from tain action for injuries to possession; forfeit claimants in case Who may main- the original claimant or claimants, or their assigns, as wel as all purchasers, under any decree or execution of any of ure of rights of the so-called provisional government courts, people's or minof abandonment. ers' courts, of the lands situate within any city or village plot or any lots, lands or mining claims situate within any mining district, together with the original claimant or claimants of said lots, lands or mining claims, shall be entitled to maintain the actions authorized by the eighth section of this chapter against any and all persons who shall enter upon and occupy said lots, lands or mining claims, or any of them; pre vided, it shall be lawful for the citizens of any mining dis trict to declare an abandonment of any creek, river, gulch, bank or mining claim a forfeiture of the rights of the claimants thereto; in which case the parties claimant shall not be enabled to maintain either of the actions mentioned in section eight of this chapter. Title to lands, lots, etc., re United States this act void as against the United States. 2136. SEC. 13. Nothing in this chapter contained shall maining in the be construed to deny the right of the United States to disnot to bar action; pose of any lands in this state; nor shall the fact that the title to any lots, lands, lodes or mining claims hath not passed from the United States, be any bar to the recovery of the plaintiff in either of the actions specified in section eight of this chapter. As against the United States, and all persons holding any of said lands under the United States, or the laws thereof, this chapter shall be of noneffect and void. Sections ten and eleven applica or pastoral lands 2137. SEC. 14. Sections ten and eleven of this chapter ble only to arable are not intended, and shall not be construed, to affect or apply to mining claims; but shall affect and be applicable to claims held or used for arable or pastoral agriculture only. Bond to be given in case of per sons desiring to mine on claim or agricultural purposes. 2138. SEC. 15. Whenever any improvements may be made upon any claim held or used for arable or pastora. agriculture, or upon any building lot, mill site or other lot or premises, and any person or persons shall demand of the claimant thereof to mine any portion of said claim, upon which such improvements may have been made, it shall be lawful for the occupant or holder of such claim to require a good and sufficient bond, in a sum double the value of the improvements upon the land sought to be mined, from the party or parties demanding to mine upon such claim, with two or more sureties, to be approved by any justice of the peace of the township in which the claim is situate, conditioned that the said party or parties shall pay all damage which may be sustained by the occupant or holder of such claim, to the improvements thereon. mony touching provements. 2139. SEC. 16. It shall be the duty of the said justice Hearing of testiof the peace, by whom the bond is required to be approved, value of im as is above recited, in case the value of the improvements cannot be agreed upon by the claimant and the party or parties seeking to mine, to appoint a day and hour to hear testimony respecting the value of the improvements which may be damaged by reason of such mining. . 2140. SEC. 17. It shall be the duty of the justice to Justification of require the sureties entering into such bond as is above sureties on bond. required, to justify before him, each in the sum stated in said bond; and if the claimant shall except to the said sureties, or either of them, it shall be lawful for said justice, and he is hereby required to examine said surety or sureties excepted to, on oath, touching the sufficiency of said surety or sureties; and if the justice shall find either or both of said sureties insufficient, it shall be the duty of the justice to require further sufficient surety or sureties, which shall be likewise approved, and shall justify, as is above required. 2141. SEC. 18. It shall be competent for said claimant to demand from the obligees in said bond, at any time after Weekly payone week after mining shall be commenced on said claim, such sum as may be equal to the damage done the improvements thereon, and after every week it shall be competent for said claimant to make the like demand, unless the payment of the damage done or to be done said improvements, shall, by the claimant, be postponed for a longer time. ment of damages to improvements by obligees of bond. Purchaser at lands dedicated to pay for thereon. 2142. SEC. 19. That when any person hath heretofore, or shall hereafter, settle upon and improve any of the public public sale of lands which have been, or shall hereafter be, donated by to public uses, act of congress to public uses, for educational or other improvements purposes, and upon any sale of such lands by public authority, subsequent to such settlement and improvement, if the person settling upon such lands shall not become the purchaser, the person becoming the purchaser of such lands |