---
kind: "section"
citation: "43 U.S.C. § 56"
title: "43"
title_heading: "Public Lands"
number: "56"
heading: "Conditions of delivery to States"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/43/56"
units:
  - "Chapter 3 — Surveys"
---

# §56. Conditions of delivery to States


The field notes, maps, records, and other papers mentioned in [section 53 of this title](/usc/43/53.md), shall in no case be turned over to the authorities of any [State](/usc/43/31b.md?p=8), until such [State](/usc/43/31b.md?p=8) has provided by law for the reception and safe-keeping of the same as public records, and for the allowance of free access to the same by the authorities of the United States.


## Source credit

(R.S. § 2221.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Codification

R.S. § 2221 derived from acts Jan. 22, 1853, ch. 24, § 3, 10 Stat. 152; June 6, 1874, ch. 223, § 3, 18 Stat. 62.