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.
43 U.S.C. § 931
EDITORIAL NOTES
CODIFICATIONR.S. §2476 derived from acts May 18, 1796, ch. 29, §9, 1 Stat. 468; Mar. 3, 1803, ch. 27, §17, 2 Stat. 235.