Monday, January 22, 2001

 

Volume 37, Issue 3; ISSN: 0511-4187

 

Proclamation 7396--establishment of the Pompeys Pillar National Monument

William J Clinton

 

 

� Proclamation 7396-Establishment of the Pompeys Pillar National

Monument

 

 

� January 17,2001

 

 

� By the President of the United States ofAmerica

 

 

� 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, snowcapped mountains, and cliffs abutting the wandering

river. Clark maked 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:

 

 

� 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.

 

 

� William J. Clinton

 

 

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

19,2001]