[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 221 (Wednesday, November 15, 2000)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 69227-69230]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-29453]


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  Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 221 / Wednesday, November 15, 2000 / 
Presidential Documents  

[[Page 69227]]


                Proclamation 7374 of November 9, 2000

                
Vermilion Cliffs National Monument

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                Amid the sandstone slickrock, brilliant cliffs, and 
                rolling sandy plateaus of the Vermilion Cliffs National 
                Monument lie outstanding objects of scientific and 
                historic interest. Despite its arid climate and rugged 
                isolation, the monument contains a wide variety of 
                biological objects and has a long and rich human 
                history. Full of natural splendor and a sense of 
                solitude, this area remains remote and unspoiled, 
                qualities that are essential to the protection of the 
                scientific and historic objects it contains.

                The monument is a geological treasure. Its centerpiece 
                is the majestic Paria Plateau, a grand terrace lying 
                between two great geologic structures, the East Kaibab 
                and the Echo Cliffs monoclines. The Vermilion Cliffs, 
                which lie along the southern edge of the Paria Plateau, 
                rise 3,000 feet in a spectacular escarpment capped with 
                sandstone underlain by multicolored, actively eroding, 
                dissected layers of shale and sandstone. The stunning 
                Paria River Canyon winds along the east side of the 
                plateau to the Colorado River. Erosion of the 
                sedimentary rocks in this 2,500 foot deep canyon has 
                produced a variety of geologic objects and associated 
                landscape features such as amphitheaters, arches, and 
                massive sandstone walls.

                In the northwest portion of the monument lies Coyote 
                Buttes, a geologically spectacular area where crossbeds 
                of the Navajo Sandstone exhibit colorful banding in 
                surreal hues of yellow, orange, pink, and red caused by 
                the precipitation of manganese, iron, and other oxides. 
                Thin veins or fins of calcite cut across the sandstone, 
                adding another dimension to the landscape. Humans have 
                explored and lived on the plateau and surrounding 
                canyons for thousands of years, since the earliest 
                known hunters and gatherers crossed the area 12,000 or 
                more years ago. Some of the earliest rock art in the 
                Southwest can be found in the monument. High densities 
                of Ancestral Puebloan sites can also be found, 
                including remnants of large and small villages, some 
                with intact standing walls, fieldhouses, trails, 
                granaries, burials, and camps.

                The monument was a crossroad for many historic 
                expeditions. In 1776, the Dominguez-Escalante 
                expedition of Spanish explorers traversed the monument 
                in search of a safe crossing of the Colorado River. 
                After a first attempt at crossing the Colorado near the 
                mouth of the Paria River failed, the explorers traveled 
                up the Paria Canyon in the monument until finding a 
                steep hillside they could negotiate with horses. This 
                took them out of the Paria Canyon to the east and up 
                into the Ferry Swale area, after which they achieved 
                their goal at the Crossing of the Fathers east of the 
                monument. Antonio Armijo's 1829 Mexican trading 
                expedition followed the Dominguez route on the way from 
                Santa Fe to Los Angeles.

                Later, Mormon exploring parties led by Jacob Hamblin 
                crossed south of the Vermilion Cliffs on missionary 
                expeditions to the Hopi villages. Mormon pioneer John 
                D. Lee established Lee's Ferry on the Colorado River 
                just south of the monument in 1871. This paved the way 
                for homesteads in the monument, still visible in 
                remnants of historic ranch structures and associated 
                objects that tell the stories of early settlement. The 
                route taken by the Mormon explorers along the base of 
                the Paria Plateau would later

[[Page 69228]]

                become known as the Old Arizona Road or Honeymoon 
                Trail. After the temple in St. George, Utah was 
                completed in 1877, the Honeymoon Trail was used by 
                Mormon couples who had already been married by civil 
                authorities in the Arizona settlements, but also made 
                the arduous trip to St. George to have their marriages 
                solemnized in the temple. The settlement of the 
                monument area by Mormon pioneers overlapped with 
                another historic exploration by John Wesley Powell, who 
                passed through the monument during his scientific 
                surveys of 1871.

                The monument contains outstanding biological objects 
                that have been preserved by remoteness and limited 
                travel corridors. The monument's vegetation is a unique 
                combination of cold desert flora and warm desert 
                grassland, and includes one threatened species, Welsh's 
                milkweed. This unusual plant, known only in Utah and 
                Arizona, colonizes and stabilizes shifting sand dunes, 
                but is crowded out once other vegetation encroaches.

                Despite sporadic rainfall and widely scattered 
                ephemeral water sources, the monument supports a 
                variety of wildlife species. At least twenty species of 
                raptors have been documented in the monument, as well 
                as a variety of reptiles and amphibians. California 
                condors have been reintroduced into the monument in an 
                effort to establish another wild population of this 
                highly endangered species. Desert bighorn sheep, 
                pronghorn antelope, mountain lion, and other mammals 
                roam the canyons and plateaus. The Paria River supports 
                sensitive native fish, including the flannelmouth 
                sucker and the speckled dace.

                Section 2 of the Act of June 8, 1906 (34 Stat. 225, 16 
                U.S.C. 431) authorizes the President, in his 
                discretion, to declare by public proclamation historic 
                landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and 
                other objects of historic or scientific interest that 
                are situated upon the lands owned or controlled by the 
                Government of the United States to be national 
                monuments, and to reserve as a part thereof parcels of 
                land, the limits of which in all cases shall be 
                confined to the smallest area compatible with the 
                proper care and management of the objects to be 
                protected.

                WHEREAS it appears that it would be in the public 
                interest to reserve such lands as a national monument 
                to be known as the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument:

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, William J. Clinton, President of the 
                United States of America, by 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 there are hereby set 
                apart and reserved as the Vermilion Cliffs National 
                Monument, for the purpose of protecting the objects 
                identified above, all lands and interests in lands 
                owned or controlled by the United States within the 
                boundaries of the area described on the map entitled 
                ``Vermilion Cliffs National Monument'' attached to and 
                forming a part of this proclamation. The Federal land 
                and interests in land reserved consist of approximately 
                293,000 acres, which is the smallest area compatible 
                with the proper care and management of the objects to 
                be protected.

                All Federal lands and interests in lands within the 
                boundaries of this monument are hereby appropriated and 
                withdrawn from all forms of entry, location, selection, 
                sale, or leasing or other disposition under the public 
                land laws, including but not limited to withdrawal from 
                location, entry, and patent under the mining laws, and 
                from disposition under all laws relating to mineral and 
                geothermal leasing, other than by exchange that 
                furthers the protective purposes of the monument. For 
                the purpose of protecting the objects identified above, 
                the Secretary shall prohibit all motorized and 
                mechanized vehicle use off road, except for emergency 
                or authorized administrative purposes.

                Lands and interests in lands within the proposed 
                monument not owned by the United States shall be 
                reserved as a part of the monument upon acquisition of 
                title thereto by the United States.

[[Page 69229]]

                The Secretary of the Interior shall manage the monument 
                through the Bureau of Land Management, pursuant to 
                applicable legal authorities, to implement the purposes 
                of this proclamation.

                The Secretary of the Interior shall prepare a 
                transportation plan that addresses the actions, 
                including road closures or travel restrictions, 
                necessary to protect the objects identified in this 
                proclamation.

                The establishment of this monument is subject to valid 
                existing rights.

                Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to enlarge 
                or diminish the jurisdiction of the State of Arizona 
                with respect to fish and wildlife management.

                This proclamation does not reserve water as a matter of 
                Federal law. Nothing in this reservation shall be 
                construed as a relinquishment or reduction of any water 
                use or rights reserved or appropriated by the United 
                States on or before the date of this proclamation. The 
                Secretary shall work with appropriate State authorities 
                to ensure that any water resources needed for monument 
                purposes are available.

                Laws, regulations, and policies followed by the Bureau 
                of Land Management in issuing and administering grazing 
                permits or leases on all lands under its jurisdiction 
                shall continue to apply with regard to the lands in the 
                monument.

                Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to revoke 
                any existing withdrawal, reservation, or appropriation; 
                however, the national monument shall be the dominant 
                reservation. Warning is hereby given to all 
                unauthorized persons not to appropriate, injure, 
                destroy, or remove any feature of this monument and not 
                to locate or settle upon any of the lands thereof.

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                ninth day of November, in the year of our Lord two 
                thousand, and of the Independence of the United States 
                of America the two hundred and twenty-fifth.

                    (Presidential Sig.)

                Billing code 3195-01-P

[[Page 69230]]

                [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TD15NO00.002
                

[FR Doc. 00-29453
Filed 11-14-00; 8:46 am]
Billing code 3195-01-C