---
kind: "section"
citation: "16 U.S.C. § 117"
title: "16"
title_heading: "Conservation"
number: "117"
heading: "Exclusive jurisdiction ceded to United States by Colorado; saving provisions; fugitives from justice"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/16/117"
units:
  - "Chapter 1 — National Parks, Military Parks, Monuments, and Seashores"
  - "Subchapter XII — Mesa Verde National Park"
---

# §117. Exclusive jurisdiction ceded to United States by Colorado; saving provisions; fugitives from justice


Sole and exclusive jurisdiction is assumed by the United States over the territory embraced and included within the Mesa Verde National [Park](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-3), saving, however, to the [State](/usc/16/590q.md?p=a) of Colorado the right to serve civil or criminal process within the limits of the aforesaid [park](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-3) in suits or prosecutions for or on account of rights acquired, obligations incurred, or crimes committed outside of said [park](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-3); and saving further to the said [State](/usc/16/590q.md?p=a) the right to tax [persons](/usc/16/450rr–1.md?p=b) and corporations, their franchises and property on the lands included in said tracts: and saving also to the [persons](/usc/16/450rr–1.md?p=b) residing in said [park](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-3) now or after April 25, 1928, the right to vote at all elections held within the county or [counties](/usc/16/544.md?p=d) in which said tracts are situated. All the laws applicable to places under the sole and exclusive jurisdiction of the United States shall have force and effect in said [park](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-3). All fugitives from justice [taking](/usc/16/3102.md?p=18) refuge in said [park](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-3) shall be subject to the same laws as refugees from justice found in the [State](/usc/16/590q.md?p=a) of Colorado.


## Source credit

(Apr. 25, 1928, ch. 434, § 1, 45 Stat. 458.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Codification

A provision accepting the act of the Colorado Legislature which ceded to the United States exclusive jurisdiction over the territory referred to in this section has been omitted as executed.