18 U.S.C. § 1858
Section 1858 · Survey marks destroyed or removed
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case United States v. White (1976)
Most recently applied in United States v. Caudle (February 1995)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Whoever willfully destroys, defaces, changes, or removes to another place any section corner, quarter-section corner, or meander post, on any Government line of survey, or willfully cuts down any witness tree or any tree blazed to mark the line of a Government survey, or willfully defaces, changes, or removes any monument or bench mark of any Government survey, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Historical and Revision Notes
Based on title 18, U.S.C., 1940 ed., §111 (Mar. 4, 1909, ch. 321, §57, 35 Stat. 1099).
Minor changes were made in phraseology.
Amendments
1994—Pub. L. 103–322 substituted “fined under this title” for “fined not more than $250”.
Cross References
Survey of public lands, see section 751 et seq. of Title 43, Public Lands.