---
kind: "section"
citation: "16 U.S.C. § 459"
title: "16"
title_heading: "Conservation"
number: "459"
heading: "Cape Hatteras National Seashore Recreational Area; conditional establishment; acquisition of lands"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/16/459"
units:
  - "Chapter 1 — National Parks, Military Parks, Monuments, and Seashores"
  - "Subchapter LXIII — National Seashore Recreational Areas"
---

# §459. Cape Hatteras National Seashore Recreational Area; conditional establishment; acquisition of lands


When title to all the lands, except those within the limits of established villages, within boundaries to be designated by the [Secretary](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-1) of the Interior within the [area](/usc/16/539m–1.md?p=1-A) of approximately one hundred square miles on the islands of Chicamacomico, Ocracoke, Bodie, Roanoke, and Collington,[^1] and the waters and the lands beneath the waters adjacent thereto shall have been vested in the United States, said [area](/usc/16/539m–1.md?p=1-A) shall be, and is, established, dedicated, and set apart as a national seashore recreational [area](/usc/16/539m–1.md?p=1-A) for the benefit and enjoyment of the people and shall be known as the Cape Hatteras National Seashore Recreational [Area](/usc/16/539m–1.md?p=1-A): Provided, That the United States shall not purchase by appropriation of public moneys any lands 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 or private donation.


## Footnotes

[^1]: So in original. Probably should be “Colington,”.

## Source credit

(Aug. 17, 1937, ch. 687, § 1, 50 Stat. 669; June 29, 1940, ch. 459, § 1, 54 Stat. 702.)

## Notes

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Change of Name

Words “national seashore recreational area” substituted in text for “national seashore” pursuant to act June 29, 1940.