---
kind: "section"
citation: "16 U.S.C. § 198"
title: "16"
title_heading: "Conservation"
number: "198"
heading: "Exclusive jurisdiction; assumption by United States; saving provisions"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/16/198"
units:
  - "Chapter 1 — National Parks, Military Parks, Monuments, and Seashores"
  - "Subchapter XXI — Rocky Mountain National Park"
---

# §198. Exclusive jurisdiction; assumption by United States; saving provisions


The provisions of the act of the Legislature of the [State](/usc/16/590q.md?p=a) of Colorado, approved February 19, 1929, ceding to the United States exclusive jurisdiction over the territory embraced and included within the Rocky Mountain National [Park](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-3), are accepted, and sole and exclusive jurisdiction is assumed by the United States over such territory, 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 tract; 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 hereafter 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; and saving to all [persons](/usc/16/450rr–1.md?p=b) residing within said [park](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-3) upon lands now privately owned within said [park](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-3) access to and from such lands, and all rights and privileges as citizens of the [State](/usc/16/590q.md?p=a) of Colorado; and saving to the people of Colorado all vested, appropriated, and existing water rights and rights-of-way connected therewith, including all existing irrigation conduits and ditches. 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

(Mar. 2, 1929, ch. 583, § 1, 45 Stat. 1536.)