§1-1-3. Acquisition of lands by United States; jurisdiction.

The consent of this state is hereby given to the acquisition by the United States, or under its authority, by purchase, lease, condemnation, or otherwise, of any land acquired, or to be acquired in this state by the United States, from any individual, body politic or corporate, for sites for lighthouses, beacons, signal stations, post offices, customhouses, courthouses, arsenals, soldiers' homes, cemeteries, locks, dams, armor plate manufacturing plants, projectile factories or factories of any kind or character, or any needful buildings or structures or proving grounds, or works for the improvement of the navigation of any watercourse, or work of public improvement whatever, or for the conservation of the forests, or for any other purpose for which the same may be needed or required by the government of the United States. The evidence of title to such land shall be recorded as in other cases.

Any county, magisterial district or municipality, whether incorporated under general law or special act of the Legislature, shall have power to pay for any such tract or parcel of land and present the same to the government of the United States free of cost, for any of the purposes aforesaid, and to issue bonds and levy taxes for the purpose of paying for the same; and, in the case of a municipal corporation, the land so purchased and presented may be within the corporate limits of such municipality or within five miles thereof:  Provided, however, That no such county, magisterial district or municipality shall, by the issue and sale of such bonds, cause the aggregate of its debt to exceed the limit fixed by the Constitution of this state:  Provided further, That the provisions of the Constitution and statutes of this state, or of the special act creating any municipality, relating to submitting the question of the issuing of bonds and all questions connected with the same to a vote of the people, shall, in all respects, be observed and complied with.

Concurrent jurisdiction with this state in and over any land so acquired by the United States shall be, and the same is hereby, ceded to the United States for all purposes; but the jurisdiction so ceded shall continue no longer than the United States shall be the owner of such lands, and if the purposes of any grant to the United States shall cease, or the United States shall for five consecutive years fail to use any such land for the purposes of the grant, the jurisdiction hereby ceded over the same shall cease and determine, and the right and title thereto shall reinvest in this state. The jurisdiction ceded shall not vest until the United States shall acquire title of record to such land. Jurisdiction heretofore ceded to the United States over any land within this state by any previous acts of the Legislature shall continue according to the terms of the respective cessions.