---
kind: "section"
citation: "16 U.S.C. § 156"
title: "16"
title_heading: "Conservation"
number: "156"
heading: "Establishment; boundaries"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/16/156"
units:
  - "Chapter 1 — National Parks, Military Parks, Monuments, and Seashores"
  - "Subchapter XVII — Big Bend National Park"
---

# §156. Establishment; boundaries


When title to such lands as may be determined by the [Secretary](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-1) of the Interior as necessary for recreational [park](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-3) purposes within the boundaries to be determined by him within the [area](/usc/16/539m–1.md?p=1-A) of approximately one million five hundred thousand acres, in the [counties](/usc/16/544.md?p=d) of Brewster and Presidio, in the [State](/usc/16/590q.md?p=a) of Texas, known as the “Big Bend” [area](/usc/16/539m–1.md?p=1-A), shall have been vested in the United States, such lands shall be established, dedicated, and set apart as a public [park](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-3) for the benefit and enjoyment of the people and shall be known as the “Big Bend National [Park](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-3)”: Provided, That the United States shall not purchase by appropriation of public moneys any land within the aforesaid [area](/usc/16/539m–1.md?p=1-A), but such lands shall be secured by the United States only by public and private donations.


## Source credit

(June 20, 1935, ch. 283, § 1, 49 Stat. 393.)