---
kind: "section"
citation: "16 U.S.C. § 51"
title: "16"
title_heading: "Conservation"
number: "51"
heading: "Yosemite National Park; exchange of privately owned lands in park"
release: "119-102"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/16/51"
units:
  - "Chapter 1 — National Parks, Military Parks, Monuments, and Seashores"
  - "Subchapter VI — Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks"
---

# §51. Yosemite National Park; exchange of privately owned lands in park


The [Secretaries](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-1) of the Departments of Interior and Agriculture, for the purpose of eliminating private holdings within the Yosemite [National Park](/usc/16/410hhh–1.md?p=5) and to [preserve](/usc/16/410hhh–1.md?p=7) intact timber along and adjoining the roads in the scenic portion of the [park](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-3) on patented lands, are empowered in their discretion to obtain and accept for the United States a complete title to any and all patented lands within the boundaries of said [park](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-3) by the exchange of timber or timber and lands within the Yosemite [National Park](/usc/16/410hhh–1.md?p=5) and the Sierra and Stanislaus [National Forests](/usc/16/5207.md?p=3) for such lands and the timber thereon within the [park](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-3), necessary conveyances of [park](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-3) and [national forest](/usc/16/5207.md?p=3) timber or timber and lands to be made by said [secretaries](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-1), respectively. The [secretaries](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-1) of the said departments are authorized to [acquire](/usc/16/620e.md?p=1) title in fee by the exchange of lands of the United States for patented lands not exceeding six hundred and forty acres in the Sierra and Stanislaus [National Forests](/usc/16/5207.md?p=3), adjacent and contiguous to the Yosemite [National Park](/usc/16/410hhh–1.md?p=5), and when such patented lands are thus acquired, said lands shall become a part of the Yosemite [National Park](/usc/16/410hhh–1.md?p=5) and be subject to all the provisions of sections [55](/usc/16/55.md), [61](/usc/16/61.md), [471c](/usc/16/471c.md) and [471d](/usc/16/471d.md) of this title.


## Source credit

(Apr. 9, 1912, ch. 74, § 1, 37 Stat. 80; Apr. 16, 1914, ch. 58, 38 Stat. 345.)