Section Text
In order to preserve for historical and professional military study one of the most memorable battles of the Revolutionary War, the Battlefield of Guilford Courthouse, in the State of North Carolina, containing in the aggregate 125 acres, more or less, together with all privileges and appurtenances thereunto belonging, title to which has heretofore been acquired by the United States, shall be a national military park and shall be known as the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park. The Secretary of the Interior is authorized and directed to acquire at such times and in such manner such additional lands adjacent to the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park as may be necessary for the purposes of the park and for its improvement. It shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Interior, to open or repair such roads as may be necessary to the purposes of the park, and to ascertain and mark with historical tablets or otherwise, as the Secretary of the Interior may determine, all lines of battle of the troops engaged in the Battle of Guilford Courthouse and other historical points of interest pertaining to the battle within the park or its vicinity; and the Secretary of the Interior shall make and enforce all needed regulations for the care of the park. It shall be lawful for any State that had troops engaged in the battle of Guilford Courthouse to enter upon the lands of the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park for the purpose of ascertaining and marking the lines of battle of its troops engaged therein: Provided, That before any such lines are permanently designated the position of the lines and the proposed methods of marking them, by monuments, tablets, or otherwise, shall be submitted to and approved by the Secretary of the Interior; and all such lines, designs, and inscriptions for the same shall first receive the written approval of the Secretary of the Interior. If any person shall, except by permission of the Secretary of the Interior, destroy, mutilate, deface, injure, or remove any monument, column, statues, memorial structures, or work of art that shall be erected or placed upon the grounds of the park by lawful authority, or shall destroy or remove any fence, railing, inclosure, or other work for the protection or ornamentation of said park, or any portion thereof, or shall destroy, cut, hack, bark, break down, or otherwise injure any tree, brush, or shrubbery that may be growing upon said park, or shall cut down or fell or remove any timber, battle relic, tree, or trees growing or being upon said park, or hunt within the limits of the park, any person so offending and found guilty thereof before any justice of the peace of the county of Guilford, State of North Carolina, shall, for each and every such offense, forfeit and pay a fine, in the discretion of the justice, according to the aggravation of the offense, of not less than $5 nor more than $50, one-half for the use of the park and the other half to the informer, to be enforced and recovered before such justice in like manner as debts of like nature were on March 2, 1917, by law recoverable in the said county of Guilford, State of North Carolina.
Editorial Notes
AMENDMENTS 1966—Pub. L. 89–554 struck out provisions which required the affairs of park, subject to supervision and direction of Secretary of the Interior, to be in charge of three commissioners.TRANSFER OF FUNCTIONS Administrative functions of Guilford Courthouse National Military Park transferred to Department of the Interior by Ex. Ord. Nos. 6166 and 6228, set out as notes under section 901 of Title 5, Government Organization and Employees. National Park Service substituted for Office of National Parks, Buildings, and Reservations referred to in Ex. Ord. No. 6166, by act Mar. 2, 1934, ch. 38, §1, 48 Stat. 389.ABOLITION OF COMMISSION Act Oct. 9, 1942, ch. 583, 56 Stat. 778, provided: "That the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park Commission, established pursuant to the Act of March 2, 1917 (39 Stat. 996; 16 U.S.C. 430i), is abolished effective at the expiration, on October 13, 1941, of the current appointment of the resident commissioner."
Citation
16 U.S.C. § 430i (2018)