Executive Order 11178—Providing for the Transfer of Lands in Georgia from the Chattahoochee National Forest to the Oconee National Forest; the Addition of Land in Indiana to the Hoosier National Forest; the Addition of Land in Oklahoma to the Quachita National Forest; and the Adjustment of the Boundary of the Tombigbee National Forest, Mississippi

WHEREAS it is in the public interest to transfer to the Oconee National Forest, Georgia, certain lands which were included within the Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia, by Proclamation No. 2263 of December 7, 1937 (51 Stat. 404); and

WHEREAS certain public lands acquired under authority of Title III of the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act, as amended (7 TJ.S.C. 1010-1012), are suitable for national forest purposes and can be most efficiently administered as part of the Hoosier National Forest, Indiana; and

WHEREAS certain lands comprising a part of the McCurtain County Land Utilization Project, Oklahoma, were inadvertently omitted from the land description contained in Executive Order No. 10851 of November 27, 1959, which was designed to transfer all lands comprising the project to the Ouachita National Forest, Oklahoma; and

WHEREAS it is in the public interest that those omitted lands be included in the Ouachita National Forest; and

WHEREAS certain minor overlaps and voids exist between portions of the boundaries of the Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge, Mississippi, and the Tombigbee National Forest, Mississippi; and

WHEREAS the lands in those voids are public lands acquired under authority of Title III of the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Act, as amended (7 IT.S.C. 1010-1012), and are suitable for national forest purposes; and

WHEREAS it is in the public interest that the lands in the voids be added to the Tombigbee National Forest and the lands in the overlaps be excluded therefrom so that the boundary of the Forest coincides with the boundary of the Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge:

NOW, THEREFORE, by virtue of the authority vested in me by Section 24 of the Act of March 3, 1891 (26 Stat. 1103), as amended (16 U.S.C. 471), and the Act of June 4, 1897 (30 Stat. 34, 36; 16 U.S.C. 473), and upon the recommendation of the Secretary of Agriculture, it is ordered that—

(1) The lands described in Proclamation No. 2263 of December 7, 1937, and shown by diagram attached thereto, are hereby excluded from the Chattahoochee National Forest, Georgia, and transferred to and made a part of the Oconee National Forest, Georgia.

(2) Lands comprising the N 1/2 SW 1/4 of Section 31, T. 3 N., R. 1 W., 2nd Principal Meridian, are, subject to valid existing rights, hereby added to and made a part of the Hoosier National Forest, Indiana.

(3) Lands comprising fractional sections 22, 27, and 34, T. 7 S., R. 27 E., Indian Meridian, are, subject to valid existing rights, hereby added to and made a part of the Ouachita National Forest, Oklahoma.

(4) (A) The following-described lands are hereby excluded from the Tombigbee National Forest, Mississippi:

Choctaw Meridian

T. 16 N., R. 13 E.,

  Sec. 23, that part lying south and east of the Louisville-Starkville Road which is east of the Betheden Road;

  Sec. 26, those parts of the W% lying east of the Betheden Road.

T. 16 N., R. 14 E.,

  Sec. 8, that part lying south and east of the Louisville-Starkville Road.

(B) The following-described lands are, subject to valid existing rights, hereby added to and made a part of the Tombigbee National Forest:

Choctaw Meridian

T. 16 N., R. 13 E.,

  Sec. 26, that part of the Ey2 lying west of the Betheden Road;

  Sec. 35, that part lying west of the Betheden Road.

(5) Proclamation No. 2263 of December 7, 1937, is hereby superseded.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON

The White House,

September 18, 1964.