The register shall receive any field notes, maps, records, or other papers relating to the public survey of this state, whenever the same shall be turned over to the state, in pursuance of an act of congress entitled “An act for the discontinuance of the office of surveyor general in the several districts as soon as the surveys therein can be completed, for abolishing land offices under certain circumstances, and for other purposes,” approved June twelve, eighteen hundred and forty, and any act amendatory thereof, and shall receive any other official surveys of any state lands and any field notes, maps, records or other paper relating thereto as may be provided by law to be filed with the register, and shall provide for their safekeeping and proper arrangement as public records. Free access to the same by the lawful authority of the United States, for the purpose of taking extracts therefrom, or making copies thereof, shall always be granted.