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Map of National
Monuments
Summary
Table
Detailed Table in MS Excel format
(Also available as 36KB Adobe
PDF)
The Bureau of Land Management administers fifteen national
monuments in eight western states. Although the first BLM
national monument was created as recently as 1996, this conservation
designation is now an integral part of the agency’s
multiple-use mandate. Congress granted the President authority
to designate national monuments in the Antiquities Act of
1906, which specifies that the law’s purpose is to protect
“objects of historic or scientific interest.”
In addition to presidentially created national monuments,
Congress has established national monuments by passing a law
to create each individual monument with its own purpose (generally
to protect natural or historic features). More than 100 national
monuments, currently managed by the National Park Service,
Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, and BLM, have been
created by either Congress or the President since 1906. The
BLM-managed national monuments, ordered by state, are listed
below:
Arizona |
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Agua
Fria National Monument
The Agua Fria National Monument contains one of the
most significant systems of late prehistoric sites in
the American Southwest. Between A.D. 1250 and 1450,
the region’s pueblo communities were populated
by as many as several thousand people. Agua Fria comprises
approximately 71,000 acres and was established in January
2000 by Presidential Proclamation.
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Grand
Canyon-Parashant National Monument
The Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument is a vast,
biologically diverse landscape encompassing an array
of scientific and historic objects which has a rich
human history spanning more than 11,000 years and an
equally rich geologic history of almost 2 billion years.
The BLM and National Park Service jointly manage the
more than one million acres within the monument’s
boundaries as established in January 2000 by Presidential
Proclamation.
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Ironwood
Forest National Monument
The Ironwood Forest National Monument offers quintessential
views of the Sonoran Desert’s ancient legume and
cactus forests. Ironwood is the dominant nurse plant
in this region, and the Silver Bell Mountains support
the highest density of ironwood trees in the Sonoran
Desert. The monument was established in June 2000 by
Presidential Proclamation to encompass nearly 130,000
acres.
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Sonoran
Desert National Monument
This monument is a magnificent example of untrammeled
desert landscape, presenting an extraordinary array
of biological, scientific, and historic resources within
a functioning desert ecosystem. Encompassing nearly
500,000 acres, the monument was established in January
2001 by Presidential Proclamation.
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Vermilion
Cliffs National Monument
Despite its arid climate and rugged isolation, Vermilion
Cliffs National Monument is the setting for a wide variety
of biological objects and a long and rich human history.
The Cliffs rise 3,000 feet above the southern edge of
the Paria Plateau to form a spectacular sandstone-capped
escarpment underlain by multicolored, actively eroding,
dissected layers of shale and sandstone. The monument
encompasses nearly 300,000 acres and was established
in November 2000 by Presidential Proclamation.
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California
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California
Coastal National Monument
The California Coastal National Monument is a biological
treasure. Its thousands of islands, rocks, exposed reefs,
and pinnacles are part of the nearshore ocean zone,
which begins just off shore and ends at the boundary
between the continental shelf and continental slope.
Presidential Proclamation established the monument in
January of 2000.
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Carrizo
Plain National Monument
Full of natural splendor and rich in human history,
the grasslands and stark ridges of the Carrizo Plain
National Monument contain exceptional objects of scientific
and historic interest. Bisected by the San Andreas Fault
zone, the Carrizo Plain National Monument is the largest
undeveloped remnant of this ecosystem, providing crucial
habitat for long-term conservation of the many endemic
plant and animal species that still inhabit the area.
Encompassing more than 200,000 acres, the monument was
established in January 2001 by Presidential Proclamation.
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Santa
Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument
The Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains of southern
California contain nationally significant biological,
cultural, recreational, geological, educational and
scientific resources. The vistas, wildlife, land forms,
and natural and cultural resources of these mountains
provide a counterpoint to the highly urbanized areas
of the nearby Coachella Valley. The Santa Rosa and San
Jacinto Mountains National Monument Act established
the unit in October 2000.
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Colorado
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Canyons
of the Ancients National Monument
Containing the highest known density of archaeological
sites in the nation, Canyons of the Ancients National
Monument holds evidence of cultures and traditions spanning
thousands of years. The monument’s complex landscape
and remarkable cultural resources offers unparalleled
opportunities to study and experience how cultures in
the American Southwest lived and adapted over time.
Presidential Proclamation established the monument in
June 2000.
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Idaho
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Craters
of the Moon National Monument
Craters of the Moon National Monument was established
on
May 2, 1924, to protect the unusual landscape of the
Craters of the Moon lava field. The scientific value
of the monument lies in the great diversity of volcanic
features preserved within a relatively small area. The
Proclamation in 2000 expanded the monument to its current
size of approximately 661,000 acres, which are managed
jointly by the BLM and the National Park Service.
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Montana
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Pompeys
Pillar National Monument
Pompeys Pillar is a massive sandstone outcrop on the
banks of the Yellowstone River, at a natural ford in
the Yellowstone River which has made it a celebrated
landmark and outstanding observation point for the more
than 11,000 years that humans have occupied the area.
The monument’s most notable visitor, Captain William
Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, stopped at
Pompeys Pillar on July 25, 1806, while returning from
the Pacific coast. The 51-acre site was declared a monument
by Presidential Proclamation in January 2001.
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Upper
Missouri River National Monument
The cliffs along this 149-mile stretch of the Missouri
River remain virtually the same as when Lewis &
Clark traveled through the area 200 years ago. The Lewis
& Clark National Historic Trail and the Nez Perce
National Historic Trail run through the monument. Presidential
Proclamation established the 370,000-acre monument in
January 2001.
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New Mexico
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Kasha-Katuwe
Tent Rocks National Monument
Located in north-central New Mexico, the Kasha-Katuwe
Tent Rocks National Monument is a outdoor laboratory
that offers an opportunity to observe geologic processes
as well as cultural and biological objects of interest.
Cone-shaped tent rock formations are the products of
explosive volcanic eruptions that occurred between 6
and 7 million years ago. The monument encompasses approximately
4,000 acres and was established in January 2001 by Presidential
Proclamation.
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Oregon
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Cascade-Siskiyou
National Monument
Fir forests, oak groves, wildflower meadows, and steep
canyons make the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument
an ecological wonder, with biological diversity unmatched
in the Cascade Range. Approximately 52,000 acres comprise
the monument, which was established in June 2000 by
Presidential Proclamation.
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Utah
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Grand
Staircase-Escalante National Monument
The vast and austere landscape of the Grand Staircase-Escalante
National Monument offers a spectacular array of scientific
and historic resources. Plateaus and cliffs characterize
this high, rugged region, the last place in the continental
United States to be mapped. It encompasses 1.9 million
acres and was created in September 1996 by Presidential
Proclamation – the first monument entrusted to
BLM management.
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