---
kind: "section"
citation: "43 U.S.C. § 931"
title: "43"
title_heading: "Public Lands"
number: "931"
heading: "Navigable rivers as public highways"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/43/931"
units:
  - "Chapter 22 — Rights-Of-Way and Other Easements in Public Lands"
---

# §931. Navigable rivers as public highways


All navigable rivers, within the territory occupied by the public lands, shall remain and be deemed public highways; and, in all cases where the opposite banks of any streams not navigable belong to different persons, the stream and the bed thereof shall become common to both.


## Source credit

(R.S. § 2476.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Codification

R.S. § 2476 derived from acts May 18, 1796, ch. 29, § 9, 1 Stat. 468; Mar. 3, 1803, ch. 27, § 17, 2 Stat. 235.