� Proclamation 7265--Establishment of the Grand Canyon-Parashant

National Monument

 

 

� January 11, 2000

 

 

� By the President of the United States of America

 

 

� A Proclamation

 

 

� The Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument is a vast,

biologically diverse, impressive landscape encompassing an array of

scientific and historic objects. This remote area of open,

undeveloped spaces and engaging scenery is located on the edge of

one of the most beautifulplaces on earth, the Grand Canyon. Despite

the hardships created by rugged isolation and the lack of natural

waters, the monument has a long and rich human history spanning more

than 11,000 years, and an equally rich geologic history spanning

almost 2 billion years. 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 resources

it contains.

 

 

� The monument is a geological treasure. Its Paleozoic and Mesozoic

sedimentary rock layers are relatively undeformed and unobscured by

vegetation, offering a clear view to understanding the geologic

history of the Colorado Plateau. Deep canyons, mountains, and lonely

buttes testify to the power of geological forces and provide

colorful vistas. A variety of formations have been exposed by

millennia of erosion by the Colorado River. The Cambrian, Devonian,

and Mississippian formations (Muav Limestone, Temple Butte

Formation, and the Redwall Limestone) are exposed at the southern

end of the lower Grand Wash Cliffs. The Pennsylvanian and Permian

formations (Calville Limestone, Esplanade Sandstone, Hermit Shale,

Toroweap Formation, and the Kaibab Formation) are well exposed

within the Parashant, Andrus, and Whitmore Canyons, and on the Grand

Gulch Bench. The Triassic Chinle and Moenkopi Formations are exposed

on the Shivwits Plateau, and the purple, pink, and white shale,

mudstone, and sandstone of the Triassic Chinle Formation are exposed

in Hells Hole.

 

 

� The monument encompasses the lower portion of the Shivwits Plateau,

which forms an important watershed for the Colorado River and the

Grand Canyon. The Plateau is bounded on the west by the Grand Wash

Cliffs and on the east by the Hurricane Cliffs. These cliffs, formed

by large faults that sever the Colorado Plateau slicing north to

south through the region, were and are major topographic barriers to

travel across the area. The Grand Wash Cliffs juxtapose the

colorful, lava-capped Precambrian and Paleozoic strata of the Grand

Canyon against the highly faulted terrain, recent lake beds, and

desert volcanic peaks of the down-dropped Grand Wash trough. These

cliffs, which consist of lower and upper cliffs separated by the

Grand Gulch Bench, form a spectacular boundary between the basin and

range and the Colorado Plateau geologic provinces. At the south end

of the Shivwits Plateau are several important tributaries to the

Colorado River, including the rugged and beautiful Parashant,

Andrus, and Whitmore canyons. The Plateau here is capped by volcanic

rocks with an array of cinder cones and basalt flows, ranging in age

from 9 million to only about 1000 years old. Lava from the Whitmore

and Toroweap areas flowed into the Grand Canyon and dammed the river

many times over the past several million years. The monument is

pocketed with sink-- holes and breccia pipes, structures associated

with volcanism and the collapse of underlying rock layers through

ground water dissolution.

 

 

� Fossils are abundant in the monument. Among these are large numbers

of invertebrate fossils, including bryozoans and brachiopods located

in the Calville limestone of the Grand Wash Cliffs, and brachiopods,

pelecypods, fenestrate bryozoa, and crinoid ossicles in the Toroweap

and Kaibab formations of Whitmore Canyon. There are also sponges in

nodules and pectenoid pelecypods throughout the Kaibab formation of

Parashant Canyon.

 

 

� The Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument contains portions of

geologic faults, including the Dellenbaugh fault, which cuts basalt

flows dated 6 to 7 million years old, the Tcroweap fault, which has

been active within the last 30,000 years, the Hurricane fault, which

forms the hurricane Cliffs and extends over 150 miles across

northern Arizona and into Utah, and the Grand Wash fault, which

bounds the west side of the Shivwits Plateau and has approximately

15,000 feet of displacement across the monument.

 

 

� Archaeological evidence shows much human use of the area over the

past centuries. Because of their remoteness and the lack of easy

road access, the sites in this area have experienced relatively

little vandalism. Their good condition distinguishes them from many

prehistoric resources in other areas. Prehistoric use is documented

by irreplaceable rock art images, quarries, villages, watchtowers,

agricultural features, burial sites, caves, rockshelters, trails,

and camps. Current evidence indicates that the monument was utilized

by small numbers of hunter-gatherers during the Archaic Period (7000

B.C. to 300 B.C.). Population and utilization of the monument

increased during the Ancestral Puebloan Period from the Basketmaker

II Phase through the Pueblo II Phase (300 B.C. to 1150 A.D.), as

evidenced by the presence of pit houses, habitation rooms,

agricultural features, and pueblo structures. Population size

decreased during the Pueblo III Phase (1150 A.D. to 1225 A.D.).

Southern Paiute groups replaced the Pueblo groups and were occupying

the monument at the time of Euro-American contact. Archaeological

sites in the monument include large concentrations of ancestral

Puebloan (Anasazi or Hitsatsinom) villages, a large, intact Pueblo

II village, numerous archaic period archeological sites, ancestral

Puebloan sites, and Southern Paiute sites. The monument also

contains areas of importance to existing Indian tribes.

 

 

� In 1776, the Escalante-Dominguez expedition of Spanish explorers

passed near Mount Trumbull. In the first half of the 19th century,

Jedediah Smith, Antonio Armiijo, and John C. Fremont explored

portions of this remote area. Jacob Hamblin, a noted Mormon pioneer,

explored portions of the Shivwits Plateau in 1858 and, with John

Wesley Powell, in the 1870s. Clarence Dutton completed some of the

first geological explorations of this area and provided some of the

most stirring written descriptions. Having traversed this area by

wagon at the request of the territorial legislature, Sharlot Hall

recommended it for inclusion within the State of Arizona when it

gained Statehood in 1912. Early historic sawmills provided timber

that was hauled 70 miles along the Temple Trail wagon road from Mt.

Trumbull down the Hurricane Cliffs to St. George, Utah. Ranch

structures and corrals, fences, water tanks, and the ruins of

sawmills are scattered across the monument and tell the stories of

the remote family ranches and the lifestyles of early homesteaders.

There are several old mining sites dating from the 1870s, showing

the history of mining during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The remote and undeveloped nature of the monument protects these

historical sites in nearly their original context.

 

 

� The monument also contains outstanding biological resources

preserved by remoteness and limited travel corridors. The monument

is the junction of two physiographic ecoregions: the Mojave Desert

and the Colorado Plateau. Individually, these regions contain

ecosystems extreme to each other, ranging from stark, and desert to

complex, dramatic higher elevation plateaus, tributaries, and rims

of the Grand Canyon. The western margin of the Shivwits Plateau

marks the boundary between the Sonoran/Mojave/ Great Basin floristic

provinces to the west and south, and the Colorado Plateau province

to the northeast. This intersection of these biomes is a distinctive

and remarkable feature. Riparian corridors link the plateau to the

Colorado River corridor below, allowing wildlife movement and plant

dispersal. The Shivwits Plateau is in an and environment with

between 14 to 18 inches of precipitation a year. Giant Mojave Yucca

cacti proliferate in undisturbed conditions throughout the monument.

Diverse wildlife inhabit the monument, including a trophy-- quality

mule deer herd, Kaibab squirrels, and wild turkey. There are

numerous threatened or endangered species as well, including the

Mexican spotted owl, the California condor, the desert tortoise, and

the southwestern willow flycatcher. There are also candidate or

sensitive species, including the spotted bat, the western mastiff

bat, the Townsend's big eared bat, and the goshawk, as well as two

federally recognized sensitive rare plant species: Penstemon distans

and Rosa stellata. The ponderosa pine ecosystem in the Mt. Trumbull

area is a biological resource of scientific interest, which has been

studied to gain important insights regarding dendroclimatic

reconstruction, fire history, forest structure change, and the

long-term persistence and stability of presettlement pine groups.

 

 

� 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 Grand

Canyon-Parashant 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 here-- by set apart and reserved as the Grand

Canyon-Parashant 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 "Grand Canyon-Parashant National

Monument" attached to and forming a part of this proclamation. The

Federal land and interests in land reserved consist of approximately

1,014,000 acres, which is the smallest area compatible with the

proper care and management of the objects to be protected.

 

 

� For the purpose of protecting the objects identified above, all

motorized and mechanized vehicle use off road will be prohibited,

except for emergency or authorized administrative purposes.

 

 

� 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.

 

 

� The establishment of this monument is subject to valid existing

rights.

 

 

� 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. Sale of vegetative material is permitted only if

part of an authorized science-based ecological restoration project.

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.

 

 

� This proclamation does not reserve water as a matter of Federal law

nor relinquish any water rights held by the Federal Government

existing onthis date. The Federal land managing agencies shall work

with appropriate State authorities to ensure that water resources

needed for monument purposes are available.

 

 

� The Secretary of the Interior shall manage the monument through the

Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service, pursuant to

applicable legal authorities, to implement the purposes of this

proclamation. The National Park Service and the Bureau of Land

Management shall manage the monument cooperatively and shall prepare

an agreement to share, consistent with applicable laws, whatever

resources are necessary to properly manage the monument; however,

the National Park Service shall continue to have primary management

authority over the portion of the monument within the Lake Mead

National Recreation Area, and the Bureau of Land Management shall

have primary management authority over the remaining portion of the

monument.

 

 

� The Bureau of Land Management shall continue to issue and

administer grazing leases within the portion of the monument within

the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, consistent with the Lake

Mead National Recreation Area authorizing legislation. Laws,

regulations, and policies followed by the Bureau of Land Management

in issuing and administering grazing leases on all lands under its

jurisdiction shall continue to apply to the remaining portion of 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 eleventh day

of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand, and of the

Independence of the United States of America the two hundredth and

twenty-fourth.

 

 

� William J. Clinton

 

 

� [Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 10:45 a.m., January

14, 2000]

 

 

� NOTE: This proclamation will be published in the Federal Register

on January 18.