[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 14 (Monday, January 22, 2001)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 7351-7353]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-2101]


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  Federal Register / Vol. 66, No. 14 / Monday, January 22, 2001 / 
Presidential Documents  

[[Page 7351]]


                Proclamation 7396 of January 17, 2001

                
Establishment of the Pompeys Pillar National 
                Monument

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                Pompeys Pillar National Monument is a massive sandstone 
                outcrop that rises from an almost two-acre base on the 
                banks of the Yellowstone River 150 feet toward 
                Montana's Big Sky, east of Billings. The monument's 
                premier location at a natural ford in the Yellowstone 
                River, and its geologic distinction as the only major 
                sandstone formation in the area, have made Pompeys 
                Pillar a celebrated landmark and outstanding 
                observation point for more than eleven thousand years 
                of human occupation. Hundreds of markings, petroglyphs, 
                and inscriptions left by visitors have transformed this 
                geologic phenomenon into a living journal of the 
                American West.

                The monument's most notable visitor, Captain William 
                Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, arrived at 
                Pompeys Pillar on July 25, 1806, on his return trip 
                from the Pacific coast. Clark's journal recorded his 
                stop at this ``remarkable rock'' with its ``extensive 
                view in every direction.'' He described an idyllic 
                landscape of grassy plains, snow-capped mountains, and 
                cliffs abutting the wandering river. Clark marked his 
                presence by engraving his name and the date of his 
                visit on the outcrop. This simple inscription is the 
                only remaining physical evidence of Lewis and Clark's 
                epic journey. In his journal, Clark named the rock 
                Pompy's Tower, Pompy being Clark's nickname for 
                Sacagawea's young son, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, who 
                was born at the expedition's winter camp at Fort Mandan 
                on February 11, 1805. The name was changed to Pompeys 
                Pillar by author Nicholas Biddle when his account of 
                the Expedition was published in 1814.

                Ethnographic and archaeological evidence indicates that 
                the Pillar was a place of ritual and religious 
                activity. Hundreds of petroglyphs on the face of the 
                rock, noted by Clark in his journal, reflect the 
                importance of the monument to early peoples. The Crow 
                people, the dominant residents of the region when Clark 
                passed through, call the pillar the ``Mountain Lions 
                Lodge'' in their language, and it figures prominently 
                in Crow oral history. Pompeys Pillar also includes the 
                markings and signature of a host of characters from the 
                pioneer past, including fur trappers, Yellowstone River 
                steamboat men, frontier army troops, railroad workers, 
                missionaries, and early settlers. In 1873, Lieutenant 
                Colonel George Armstrong Custer and his men camped at 
                its base, where they came under attack from Sioux 
                snipers.

                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 Pompeys Pillar National Monument:

[[Page 7352]]

                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 Pompeys Pillar 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 
                ``Pompeys Pillar National Monument'' attached to and 
                forming a part of this proclamation. The Federal land 
                and interests in land reserved consist of approximately 
                51 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.

                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.

                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 establishment of this monument is subject to any 
                valid existing rights, including the mineral estate 
                held by the United States in trust for the Crow Tribe.

                Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to enlarge 
                or diminish the jurisdiction of the State of Montana 
                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.

                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 
                seventeenth day of January, in the year of our Lord two 
                thousand one, and of the Independence of the United 
                States of America the two hundred and twenty-fifth.

                    (Presidential Sig.)

Billing code 3195-01-P

[[Page 7353]]

[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TD22JA01.182


[FR Doc. 01-2101 Filed 1-19-01; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3195-01-C