---
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"
date: "2026-07-12"
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/16/410r–5.md?p=c-3) and to [preserve](/usc/16/698u–1.md?p=2) 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/16/410r–5.md?p=c-3) and the Sierra and Stanislaus National Forests 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 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, adjacent and contiguous to the Yosemite National [Park](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-3), and when such patented lands are thus acquired, said lands shall become a part of the Yosemite National [Park](/usc/16/410r–5.md?p=c-3) 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.)