The governing boards of municipal corporations, through their designated officers, or the inhabitants thereof, with the approval of the governing board when authorized by federal law or regulation, or a circuit judge for the county in which an unincorporated town is situated, on petition of fifty percent of the resident freeholders in any unincorporated town, in trust for the several use and benefit of the municipality and the occupants thereof according to their respective interests in accordance with this chapter and federal statutes and regulations of appropriate federal agencies pertaining thereto, are authorized and it shall be their duty to acquire, enter, survey, dedicate, plat, make, and file all petitions, applications, statements, and transcripts necessary to acquire public land available, or made available, for townsites under the provisions of Title 43 of the United States Code, Chapter 17 thereof, relating to townsites on public lands.

Source: SL 1881, ch 105, § 1; SL 1881, ch 135, § 1; CL 1887, § 1168; RPolC 1903, § 1570; repealed by omission RC 1919; re–enacted SL 1971, ch 69, § 1.