---
type: "LegalText"
title: "43 U.S.C. § 931"
description: "Navigable rivers as public highways"
jurisdiction: "us"
corpus: "united_states_code"
kind: "code_section"
title_number: 43
title_name: "PUBLIC LANDS"
chapter_number: "22"
chapter_name: "RIGHTS-OF-WAY AND OTHER EASEMENTS IN PUBLIC LANDS"
section: "931"
citation: "43 U.S.C. § 931"
status: "current"
release_point: "119-100"
release_date: "2026-06-26"
source: "official"
source_url: "https://uscode.house.gov/download/releasepoints/us/pl/119/100/xml_usc43@119-100.zip"
source_identifier: "/us/usc/t43/s931"
source_file: "data/legal/raw/us/code/title-43/usc43.xml"
source_hash: "eecc663e1649728c56feb6a884ae417c8c994e707a78f3a1d7dd43ee6fad3e30"
raw_snapshot_hash: "d46a16361aa9d10bbc4b27ea0561882d240801c965a2700a4b7cf5f02f552a5f"
text_hash: "cf6b6305156ad465c4517d327de836665c804258ffae3d5745a512cde9d8383c"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-04"
confidence: "official"
tags: ["legal", "us-code"]
---

# 43 U.S.C. § 931 - Navigable rivers as public highways

## Text

All navigable rivers, within the territory occupied by the public lands, shall remain and be deemed public highways; and, in all cases where the opposite banks of any streams not navigable belong to different persons, the stream and the bed thereof shall become common to both.

(R.S. § 2476.)

## Notes

Editorial Notes

Codification R.S. § 2476 derived from acts May 18, 1796, ch. 29, § 9, 1 Stat. 468; Mar. 3, 1803, ch. 27, § 17, 2 Stat. 235.