t does not cover lands acquired for forests,
parks, ranges, wild life sanctuaries or flood control.[1376]
Nevertheless the Supreme Court has held that a State may convey, and
that Congress may accept, either exclusive or qualified jurisdiction
over property acquired within the geographical limits of a State, for
purposes other than those enumerated in Clause 17.[1377]

After exclusive jurisdiction over lands within a State has been ceded to
the United States, Congress alone has the power to punish crimes
committed within the ceded territory.[1378] Private property located
thereon is not subject to taxation by the State,[1379] nor can State
statutes enacted subsequent to the transfer have any operation
therein.[1380] But the local laws in force at the date of cession which
are protective of private rights continue in force until abrogated by
Congress.[1381]

DURATION OF FEDERAL JURISDICTION

A State may qualify its cession of territory by a condition that
jurisdiction shall be retained by the United States only so long as the
place is used for specified purposes.[1382] Such a provision operates
prospectively and does not except from the grant that portion of a
described tract which is then used as a railroad right of way.[1383] In
1892, the Court upheld the jurisdiction of the United States to try a
person charged with murder on a military reservation, over the objection
that the State had ceded jurisdiction only over such portions of the
area as were used for military purposes, and that the particular place
on which the murder was committed was used solely for farming. The Court
held that the character and purpose of the occupation having been
officially established by the political department of the government, it
was not open to the Court to inquire into the actual uses to which any
portion of the area was temporarily put.[1384] A few years later,
however, it ruled that the lease to a city, for use as a market, of a
portion of an area which had been ceded to the United States for a
particular purpose, suspended the exclusive jurisdiction of the United
States.[1385]

Recently the question arose whether the United States retains
jurisdiction over a place which was ceded to it unconditionally after it
has abandoned the use of the property for governmental purposes and
entered into a contract for the sale thereof to private persons.
Minnesota asserted the right to tax the equitable interest of the
purchaser in such