PART VIII. CONTEST OF ENTRIES

§461. Contest of entries

In all cases where lands belonging to the state are entered under any of the laws requiring their settlement and cultivation as a part of the consideration received or to be received by the state, and particularly where the entries were made under the homestead laws, the graduation laws, or the settlement and cultivation laws, any person or persons desiring to acquire title to them, or any part thereof, and who is otherwise lawfully qualified to acquire them, may contest the entry, and if successful may acquire title to the lands covered in the manner following:

(1) He shall file a written notice of contest in the state land office describing the entry by number, date, and the name of the enterers and the land by section, township and range, or other proper description, and setting forth the facts constituting the alleged invalidity of said entry.

(2) The notice shall be supported by the affidavit of the contestant and two witnesses.

(3) On filing the notice with the Register of the State Land Office on the payment of two dollars and fifty cents for each entry so contested to cover the cost thereof, except that of the services of notices of contest as hereafter provided.

(4) The Register shall issue his notices to the enterer, and shall deliver them to the contestant or his attorney of record.

(5) The notice shall substantially state the facts, the ground of contest, and that on a day to be therein fixed, the parties will be heard in person or by counsel, with such proof as either may adduce, under the principles and rules of evidence applicable and now in force in like contests in the land offices of the United States.