[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 46 (Monday, November 20, 2000)]
[Pages 2838-2840]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7374--Vermilion Cliffs National Monument

 November 9, 2000

 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

[[Page 2839]]

route taken by the Mormon explorers along the base of the Paria Plateau 
would later 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.
    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.

[[Page 2840]]

    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.
                                            William J. Clinton

 [Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:46 a.m., November 13, 
2000]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on 
November 15. This item was not received in time for publication in the 
appropriate issue.