16 U.S.C. § 459 (2024)

This is the official text of 16 U.S.C. § 459 (2024), part of Federal (US Code)’s United States Code — the codified general and permanent federal statutes of the United States, organized into more than 50 numbered titles by subject.

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Cape Hatteras National Seashore Recreational Area; conditional establishment; acquisition of lands

Official statutory text

When title to all the lands, except those within the limits of established villages, within boundaries to be designated by the Secretary of the Interior within the area 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 shall be, and is, established, dedicated, and set apart as a national seashore recreational area for the benefit and enjoyment of the people and shall be known as the Cape Hatteras National Seashore Recreational Area: Provided, That the United States shall not purchase by appropriation of public moneys any lands within the aforesaid area, but such lands shall be secured by the United States only by public or private donation.

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

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.

1 So in original. Probably should be "Colington,".

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.