National Monuments

If you watched the PBS Ken Burns documentary about the National Parks you know that presidents from Theodore Roosevelt to George W. Bush have used the Antiquities Act to create National Monuments on land already owned or controlled by the U. S. Government. The purpose of the act was to protect "historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest" and has been used many times by presidents to create and enlarge National Monuments. Some times after a president had used the Antiquities Act to create a National Monument Congress has acted to name it a National Park.

Today there are 100 National Monuments the vast majority of which are administered by the National Park Service; but others are administered wholly or partly by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the U. S. Forest Service, the Armed Services Retirement Home, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. However, not all National Monuments created by Congress are administered and operated by the Federal Government. Hohokam Pima NM is owned and operated by the Gila Indian Community, and the Poverty Point State LA is owned and operated by the Louisiana Office of State Parks.

Interestingly, of the 100 National Monuments that exist today only 71 were created by a president using the Antiquities Act, the other 29 were created by an Act of Congress. Typically, those created by an act of Congress were on private land that had to be purchased by the government or more often by private individuals who donated the land to the government after purchase.

The oldest to be created by an act of Congress is George Washington Birthplace National Monument in Virginia which was authorized January 23, 1930. The next four created by an act of Congress were all over the map: Canyon de Chelly in Arizona, Ocmulgee in Georgia, Fort Stanwix in the state of New York, and Homestead in Nebraska.

These five and most of the other National Monuments created by acts of Congress had long and difficult journeys involving many local people, Congressmen, and Senators before the legislation was passed. The story of the creation of Homestead National Monument of America is typical.

Below is a list of the 29 National Monuments that were created by an act of Congress:

National Monument		Agency Date of Enabling Legislation
George Washington Birthplace		Jan 1930 National Park Service [NPS]
Canyon de Chelly		Feb 1931 NPS
Ocmulgee		Jun 1934 NPS
Fort Stanwix		Aug 1935 NPS
Homestead		Mar 1936 NPS
Fort Frederica		May 1936 NPS
Pipestone		Aug 1937 NPS
Fort McHenry		Aug 1939 NPS
George Washington Carver		Jul 1943 NPS
Little Bighorn Battlefield		Mar 1946 NPS
Castle Clinton		Aug 1946 NPS
Fort Sumter		Apr 1948 NPS
Fort Union		Jun 1954 NPS
Booker T. Washington		Apr 1956 NPS
Grand Portage		Sep 1958 NPS
Agate Fossil Beds		Jun 1965 NPS
Alibates Flint Quarries		Aug 1965 NPS
Florissant Fossil Beds		Aug 1969 NPS
Hohokam Pima		Oct 1972 NPS
Fossil Butte		Oct 1972 NPS
John Day Fossil Beds		Oct 1974 NPS
El Malpais		Dec 1987 NPS
Poverty Point		Oct 1988 NPS
Hagerman Fossil Beds		Nov 1988 NPS
Petroglyph		Jun 1990 NPS
Newberry Volcanic		Nov 1990 U. S. Forest Service [USFS]
Mount St. Helens Volcanic		Aug 1982 USFS
Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains		Oct 2 Bureau of Land Management [BLM] and USFS 000
Prehistoric Trackways		Mar 2009 BLM