When the commissioner of school and public lands shall ascertain that sections sixteen and thirty–six, or any part thereof, granted to the state, are or have been lawfully included and embraced within any forest or other reservation established under or by authority of any act of Congress, such commissioner shall, by and with the approval of the secretary of the interior, or the secretary of agriculture when necessary, select from the surveyed, unreserved, and unappropriated public lands of the United States, within this state, other land equivalent thereto in area and value in legal subdivisions and as contiguous as may be to the section in lieu of which the same is taken; provided that if the commissioner shall, upon examination or otherwise, determine that any land, which might ultimately become vested in the state in such forest or other reservation, borders on or is in the vicinity of any lake, waterfall, spring, or other naturally advantageous site, or any natural curiosity, or for any other cause such land has, or in the future may have, peculiar value to the state, then the commissioner shall not certify such lands to the secretary of the interior as a basis for indemnity selections in lieu thereof but the state shall retain its claim to perfect title to such land.

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Source: SL 1917, ch 336, § 5; RC 1919, § 5724; SDC 1939, § 15.0205.