CHAP. 97--An ACT to authorize the United States government to acquire title and jurisdiction to land on Smith's island, in the county of Northampton, as a site for a lighthouse station.

Whereas the government of the United States desires to acquire title to certain land on Smith's island, in the county of Northampton, as a site for the Cape Charles light station; therefore, Preamble.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That the consent of this commonwealth be, and is hereby, given to the acquisition of the said title, so that congress may exercise such authority and jurisdiction over the said land when the title to the same shall have been acquired, as is within the contemplation of the seventeenth clause of the eighth section of the first article of the constitution of the United States. Jurisdiction ceded.

2. This state retains concurrent jurisdiction with the United States over the said land, so far as it lawfully can consistently with this act, and its courts, magistrates, and officers may take such cognizance, execute such process, and discharge such other legal functions within the same as may not be incompatible with the true intent and meaning of this act.
Concurrent jurisdiction retained.

3. If the purposes of this grant shall cease, or if there shall be for five years consecutively a failure on the part of the United States to use said land for the purposes herein expressed, then the jurisdiction herein granted shall cease.

4. The said land so acquired shall not exceed twenty-five acres for the purposes aforesaid; and the said land, and the buildings and improvements to be erected thereon for the purposes aforesaid, are hereby, exempted from all taxes imposed by this state, or by the county of Northampton, so long as the same shall be held and used by the United States, for the purposes hereinbefore mentioned and no longer.

5. Should the property herein granted be used for any other purposes than those specified herein by the United States government, or under its authority, then the same shall be subject to taxation as other property in the state.

6. This act shall be in force from its passage. Commencem't.