(1) Within one year after any person, company of persons, association, or incorporated company authorized to construct irrigation works under the provisions of this article has notified the settlers under such works that it is prepared to furnish water under the terms of its contract with the state, the settlers shall cultivate and reclaim not less than one-sixteenth part of the land filed upon. Within two years after the notice, the settler shall have actually irrigated and cultivated not less than one-eighth of the land filed upon. Within three years from the date of notice, the settler shall appear before the register, or a judge or clerk of the district court in the county in which such land is situated, as designated by the register, and make final proof of reclamation, settlement, and occupation. The proof shall embrace evidence that he has a perpetual water right for his entire tract of land sufficient in volume for the complete irrigation and reclamation thereof, that he is an actual settler thereon, and that he has cultivated and irrigated not less than one-eighth part of said tract and such further proof, if any, as may be required by the regulations of the department of the interior or the board.
The officer taking this proof is entitled to receive a fee, to be fixed by the state boardof land commissioners, not to exceed five dollars and to be paid by the settler. It shall be in addition to the price paid to the state for the land. All proofs so received shall be submitted by the register to the board and shall be accompanied by the last final payment for the land, and, on the approval of the same by the board, they shall be forwarded to the secretary of the interior, with a request that a patent to the lands be issued to the state.
When the state, through its state board of land commissioners, can make proof thatsuch irrigation works have been completed for the reclamation of the lands so segregated and that an ample supply of water is actually furnished in a substantial ditch or canal or by artesian wells or reservoirs, for such purpose, the board shall apply for a patent to such lands, in the manner provided by the regulations of the department of the interior and in accordance with the provisions of the acts of congress relating thereto, without waiting for settlement or cultivation of such lands.
Source: L. 1895: p. 165, § 18. L. 07: p. 366, § 1. R.S. 08: § 5155. C.L. § 1140. CSA: C. 134, § 38. CRS 53: § 112-2-20. C.R.S. 1963: § 112-2-20. L. 64: p. 301, § 259.