[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 37, Number 3 (Monday, January 22, 2001)]
[Pages 153-156]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
 Proclamation 7398--Establishment of the Upper Missouri River Breaks 
National Monument

 January 17, 2001

 By the President of the United States

 of America

 A Proclamation

    The Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument contains a 
spectacular array of biological, geological, and historical objects of 
interest. From Fort Benton upstream into the Charles M. Russell National 
Wildlife Refuge, the monument spans 149 miles of the Upper Missouri 
River, the adjacent Breaks country, and portions of Arrow Creek, 
Antelope Creek, and the Judith River. The area has remained largely 
unchanged in the nearly 200 years since Meriwether Lewis and William 
Clark traveled through it on their epic journey. In 1976, the Congress 
designated the Missouri River segment and corridor in this area a 
National Wild and Scenic River (Public Law 94-486, 90 Stat. 2327). The 
monument also encompasses segments of the Lewis and Clark National 
Historic Trail, the Nez Perce National Historic Trail, and the Cow Creek 
Island Area of Critical Environmental Concern.
    Lewis and Clark first encountered the Breaks country of the monument 
on their westward leg. In his journal, Clark described the abundant 
wildlife of the area, including mule deer, elk, and antelope, and on 
April 29, 1805, the Lewis and Clark expedition recorded the first big 
horn sheep observation by non-Indians in North America. Lewis' 
description of the magnificent White Cliffs area on the western side of 
the monument is especially vivid, and not just for his sometimes 
colorful spellings:
    ``The hills and river Clifts which we passed today exhibit a most 
romantic appear-ance. . . . The bluffs of the river rise to hight of 
from 2 to 300 feet and in most places nearly perpendicular; they are 
formed of remarkable white sandstone which is sufficiently soft to give 
way readily to the impression of water . . .
    ``The water in the course of time . . . has trickled down the soft 
sand clifts and woarn it into a thousand grotesque figures, which

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with the help of a little immagination and an oblique view, at a 
distance are made to represent eligant ranges of lofty freestone 
buildings, having their parapets well stocked with statuary; collumns of 
various sculptures both grooved and plain, are also seen supporting long 
galleries in front of these buildings; in other places on a much nearer 
approach and with the help of less immagination we see the remains or 
ruins of eligant buildings; some collumns standing and almost entire 
with their pedestals and capitals; others retaining their pedestals but 
deprived by time or accident of their capitals, some lying prostrate an 
broken othe[r]s in the form of vast pyramids of conic structure bearing 
a serees of other pyramids on their tops . . .
    As we passed on it seemed as if those seens of visionary inchantment 
would never have and [an] end; for here it is too that nature presents 
to the view of the traveler vast ranges of walls of tolerable 
workmanship, so perfect indeed are those walls that I should have 
thought that nature had attempted here to rival the human art of masonry 
. . .''
    The monument is covered with sedimentary rocks deposited in shallow 
seas that covered central and eastern Montana during the Cretaceous 
period. Glaciers, volcanic activity, and erosion have since folded, 
faulted, uplifted, and sculpted the landscape to the majestic form it 
takes today.
    The area remains remote and nearly as undeveloped as it was in 1805. 
Many of the biological objects described in Lewis' and Clark's journals 
continue to make the monument their home. The monument boasts the most 
viable elk herd in Montana and one of the premier big horn sheep herds 
in the continental United States. It contains essential winter range for 
sage grouse as well as habitat for prairie dogs. Lewis sent Jefferson a 
prairie dog specimen which was, as Lewis noted at the time, ``new to 
science.'' Abundant plant life along the River and across the Breaks 
country supports this wildlife. The lower reach of the Judith River, 
just above its confluence with the Missouri, contains one of the few 
remaining fully functioning cottonwood gallery forest ecosystems on the 
Northern Plains. Arrow Creek, originally called Slaughter River by Lewis 
and Clark, contains the largest concentration of antelope and mule deer 
in the monument as well as important spawning habitat for the endangered 
pallid sturgeon. An undammed tributary to the Missouri River, Arrow 
Creek is a critical seed source for cottonwood trees for the flood plain 
along the Missouri.
    The cliff faces in the monument provide perching and nesting habitat 
for many raptors, including the sparrow hawk, ferruginous hawk, 
peregrine falcon, prairie falcon, and golden eagle. Several pairs of 
bald eagles nest along the River in the monument and many others visit 
during the late fall and early winter. Shoreline areas provide habitat 
for great blue heron, pelican, and a wide variety of waterfowl. The 
River and its tributaries in the monument host forty-eight fish species, 
including goldeye, drum, sauger, walleye, northern pike, channel 
catfish, and small mouth buffalo. The monument has one of the six 
remaining paddlefish populations in the United States. The River also 
supports the blue sucker, shovel nose sturgeon, sicklefin, sturgeon 
chub, and the endangered pallid sturgeon.
    The Bullwacker area of the monument contains some of the wildest 
country on all the Great Plains, as well as important wildlife habitat. 
During the stress-inducing winter months, mule deer and elk move up to 
the area from the river, and antelope and sage grouse move down to the 
area from the benchlands. The heads of the coulees and breaks also 
contain archeological and historical sites, from teepee rings and 
remnants of historic trails to abandoned homesteads and lookout sites 
used by Meriwether Lewis.
    Long before the time of Lewis and Clark, the area was inhabited by 
numerous native tribes, including the Blackfeet, Assiniboin, Gros Ventre 
(Atsina), Crow, Plains Cree, and Plains Ojibwa. The confluence of the 
Judith and Missouri Rivers was the setting for important peace councils 
in 1846 and 1855. In 1877, the Nez Perce crossed the Missouri and 
entered the Breaks country in their attempt to escape to Canada. The Cow 
Island Skirmish occurred in the Breaks and was the last encounter prior 
to the Nez Perce surrender to the U.S. Army at the Battle of Bear Paw 
just north of the monument. Pioneers and the Army followed Lewis and 
Clark in

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the 1830s establishing Fort Piegan, Fort McKenzie, and Fort Benton. 
Remnants of this rich history are scattered throughout the monument, and 
the River corridor retains many of the same qualities and much of the 
same appearance today as it did then.
    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 Upper 
Missouri River Breaks 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 Upper Missouri River Breaks 
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 ``Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument'' attached to 
and forming a part of this proclamation. The Federal land and interests 
in land reserved consist of approximately 377,346 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. The 
establishment of this monument is subject to valid existing rights. The 
Secretary of the Interior shall manage development on existing oil and 
gas leases within the monument, subject to valid existing rights, so as 
not to create any new impacts that would interfere with the proper care 
and management of the objects protected by 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.
    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, 
including the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, to implement the 
purposes of this proclamation.
    Because waters of the Upper Missouri River through the monument area 
have already been reserved through the Congress's designation of the 
area as a component of the National Wild and Scenic River System in 
1976, this proclamation makes no additional reservation of water, except 
in two small tributaries, the Judith River and Arrow Creek. These 
tributaries contain outstanding objects of biological interest that are 
dependent on water, such as a fully functioning cottonwood gallery 
forest ecosystem that is rare in the Northern Plains. Therefore, there 
is hereby reserved, as of the date of this proclamation and subject to 
valid existing rights, a quantity of water in the Judith River and Arrow 
Creek sufficient to fulfill the purposes for which this monument is 
established. Nothing in this reservation shall be construed as a 
relinquishment or reduction of any water use or rights reserved or 
appropriated by the

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United States on or before the date of this proclamation.
    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.
    Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to enlarge or diminish 
the rights of any Indian tribe.
    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 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.
                                            William J. Clinton

 [Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., January 19, 
2001]

  Note:  This proclamation was published in the  Federal Register  on 
January 22.