SECTIONS 7601-7609 - California Statutes

PUBLIC RESOURCES CODE

SECTION 7601-7609

7601. Any person desiring to purchase any of the lands uncovered by
the recession or drainage of the waters of inland lakes, and inuring
to the State by virtue of her sovereignty, or the swamp and
overflowed lands not segregated by the United States, shall make an
application therefor to the commission. The application shall be
accompanied by the applicant's affidavit that he is a citizen of the
United States, or has declared his intention to become such, that he
is a resident of this State, of lawful age, that he desires to
purchase such lands (describing them by legal subdivisions, or by
metes and bounds, if the legal subdivisions are unknown), under the
provisions of this chapter, for his own use and benefit, and for the
use and benefit of no other person whomsoever, and that he has made
no contract or agreement to sell the lands, and that he does not now
own any State lands which, together with that now sought to be
purchased, exceeds 640 acres.
This section shall not affect or apply to any land uncovered by
the recession or drainage of the waters of any lake or other body of
water, the waters of which are so impregnated with minerals as to be
valuable for the purpose of extracting therefrom such minerals.

7602. Upon the filing of such application, if the land has not been
sectionized, the commission shall authorize the county surveyor of
the county where the whole or the greater portion of the land lies,
to survey the land. He shall make an actual survey thereof, at the
expense of the applicant, etablishing four corners to each
quarter-section, and connecting the survey with a United States
survey. Within 30 days he shall file with the commission a copy,
under oath, of his field-notes and plat, and a statement under oath,
showing whether or not the land is occupied by any actual settler. If
the surveyor thus authorized fails to make his return to the
commission within the time specified, the commission may designate
another person to make the survey.

7603. No application to purchase land under this chapter shall be
approved until the expiration of 90 days from the filing thereof, and
meanwhile the land is subject to the adverse claim of any actual
settler who resided thereon when the application was filed.

7604. The lands designated in this chapter shall be sold at the
price fixed by the commission.

7605. If any of the lands described in this chapter are suitable
for cultivation without reclamation, they shall be sold only to
actual settlers in tracts not exceeding 160 acres.

7606. Any of the lands designated in this chapter which, by reason
of periodical overflow, need, and are susceptible of, reclamation,
may be reclaimed by the formation of districts, in the same manner
and subject to all of the provisions of law regulating the
reclamation of swamp and overflowed lands. The board of supervisors
of the county in which the lands, or the greater part thereof, are
situated, shall first determine, upon proper petition presented
therefor by the holders of the title, or evidence of title,
representing one-half or more of any body of such land, that such
reclamation is necessary and feasible.

7607. When land has been sold under this chapter, no contest can be
maintained against the purchaser on the ground that the land is not
of the character stated in the application, unless it is shown that
it is not of the character recited in Section 7601.

7608. All uncanceled certificates of purchase and patents issued
prior to May 20, 1907, and payments made prior to May 20, 1907, for
any lands as swamp and overflowed lands, which belong to any of the
classes described in Section 7601, whether or not such lands were
segregated or sectionized, are for all purposes valid, and have the
same force and effect as if such lands had been at all times subject
to sale as swamp and overflowed lands.

7609. All plats of any of the lands described in Section 7601,
which were made prior to May 20, 1907, under authority of the United
States Surveyor General, and which plats designate the lands as swamp
and overflowed land, shall be deemed valid and effectual as surveys
of such lands from and after the date thereof.