Proclamation 2773—Enlarging the Fort Matanzas National Monument, Florida

Whereas certain lands on Rattlesnake Island, located at the mouth of the Matanzas River in the State of Florida, have been donated to the United States for the extension of the Fort Matanzas National Monument; and

Whereas it appears that the public interest would be promoted by adding such lands and the remaining public lands comprising Rattlesnake Island to the Fort Matanzas National Monument in order to insure permanent protection to the Fort and its historic setting:

Now, Therefore, I, Harry S. Truman, President of the United States of America, under and by virtue of the authority vested in me by section 2 of the act of June 8, 1906, 34 Stat. 225 (16 U.S.C. 431), do proclaim that, subject to valid existing rights, the following-described lands in Florida are hereby added to and reserved as a part of the Fort Matanzas National Monument:

TALLAHASSEE MERIDIAN, FLORIDA

Lots 2, 3, and 4, Sec. 24, T. 9 S., R. 30 E., containing 89.42 acres, which are unappropriated and unreserved public lands. Also all of the tidelands adjacent to Rattlesnake Island in Secs. 13, 14, 23, and 24, T. 9 S., R. 30 E., containing 120.0 acres, the same having been donated to the United States by the Trustees of the Internal Improvement Fund of the State of Florida by deed dated April 28, 1944, and recorded on march 19, 1945, in Deed Book 149, page 426, Public Records of St. Johns County, Florida, and by a deed of release dated August 26, 1947, and recorded on January 27, 1948, in Deed Book 171, page 478, Public Records of St. Johns County, Florida, which relinquished to the United States the mineral rights reserved in the aforementioned deed.

Warning is hereby expressly given to all unauthorized persons not to appropriate, injure, destroy, deface, or remove any feature of this monument and not to locate or settle upon any of the lands reserved by this proclamation.

The Director of the national Park Service, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, shall have the supervision, management, and control of the monument as provided in the act of Congress entitled "An Act to Establish a national Park Service, and for other purposes," approved August 25, 1916 (39 Stat. 535; 16 U.S.C. 1, 2), and acts supplementary thereto or amendatory thereof.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington this 24th day of March in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and forty-eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and seventy-second.

HARRY S. TRUMAN

By the President:

G.C. MARSHALL,

Secretary of State.