West Virginia Code § 1-1-3

Acquisition of lands by United States; jurisdiction
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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 manufacturieng 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 navrigation 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, thse 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 gof 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 creaeting 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 obserLved 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
StaWtes 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.

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