# List of proposed national monuments of the United States

The President of the United States can establish a national monument by presidential proclamation, and the United States Congress can by legislation. The Antiquities Act of 1906 authorized the president to proclaim "historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest" as national monuments.
Other protective national designations, including those of the National Park Service, must be created by congressional legislation.

## Interior Department memorandum

In a 2010 "Not for Release" memorandum by the United States Department of the Interior, 14 areas were listed in the "Prospective Conservation Designation" attachment as "good candidates for National Monument designation under the Antiquities Act". Those areas are included in the lists below, shaded bluish-green.
In subsequent attachments in the same draft, "areas worthy of protection that are ineligible for Monument Designation and unlikely to receive legislative protection in the near term" and "cost estimates" of "high priority land-rationalization efforts" were listed.

## Monuments for All Campaign

During the Biden Administration, coalitions of numerous conservation, Native American, and Black groups coalesced to form the Monuments for All campaign, to coincide with the "America the Beautiful" and "30x30" initiatives from the Biden Administration. These groups called on President Biden to designate numerous National Monuments under the Antiquities Act, many from the 2010 Memorandum that were not designated by President Obama. These groups successfully lobbied for the restoration of Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument from President Trump's cuts, as well as Avi Kwa Ame National Monument and Castner Range, among others. The monuments still in this campaign are colored blue below.

## Proposed national monuments

| Proposed name | Photo | Location | Area | External information |
| Bodie Hills | | California | | |
| Birthplace of Rivers | | West Virginia Map | 122,000 acres (49,000 ha) | BirthplaceofRivers.org West Virginia Rivers Coalition Video by Pew & This American Land |
| Douglas-Fir National Monument | | Oregon | 530,000 acres (214,500 ha) | Friends of Douglas-Fir National Monument |
| Expansion of Cascade-Siskiyou | | California | | |
| Greater Canyonlands | Upper Comb Wash in Greater Canyonlands | Utah Map Threats | 1,800,000 acres (730,000 ha) | Greater Canyonlands Coalition Utah Public Lands Initiative with ArcGIS map |
| Greater Grand Canyon Heritage (The majority of this was designated as part of the Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument in 2023) | | Arizona map | 1,700,000 acres (690,000 ha) | Greater Grand Canyon Watershed Grand Canyon Waters, at the Abyss (New York Times) |
| Heart of the Great Basin | | Nevada | | |
| Lesser Prairie Chicken Preserve | | New Mexico | 58,000 acres (23,000 ha) | |
| Montana's Northern Prairie | | Montana | 2,500,000 acres (1,000,000 ha) | |
| Northwest Sonoran Desert | | Arizona | 500,000 acres (200,000 ha) | |
| Otero Mesa | | New Mexico | 1,200,000 acres (490,000 ha) | |
| Owyhee Canyonlands | | Oregon | 2,100,000 acres (850,000 ha) | Oregon Natural Desert Association |
| Owyhee Desert | | Oregon/Nevada | | |
| Range of Light | | California | Approximately 1,427,750 acres | Unite the Parks Range of Light Video featuring Frank Helling as the voice of John Muir |
| San Rafael Swell | | Utah | | Utah Public Lands Initiative with ArcGIS map |
| Sutton Mountain | | Oregon | 66,000 acres (27,000 ha) | Oregon Natural Desert Association |
| The Modoc Plateau | | California | 3,000,000 acres (1,200,000 ha) | Video by Los Angeles Times |
| Vermillion Basin | | Colorado | | |
| Bahsahwahbee National Monument | | Nevada | | Video by Associated Press |
| Chuckwalla National Monument | | California Map | | Protect Chuckwalla |
| Historic Greenwood/Black Wall Street National Monument | | Oklahoma | | Black Wall Street Coalition |
| Great Bend of the Gila National Monument | | Arizona Map | 330,000 acres (130,000 ha) | Respect Great Bend |
| Dolores River Canyon National Monument | | Colorado Map | 400,000 acres (160,000 ha) | Protect the Dolores |
| Sátittla and Medicine Lake Highlands National Monument | | California | 200,000 acres (81,000 ha) | Protect Medicine Lake Highlands |
| Kw'tsan National Monument | | California | 390,000 acres (160,000 ha) | Fort Yuma Quechan Tribe |
| Mimbres Peaks/Los Lunas National Monument | | New Mexico | 245,000 acres (99,000 ha) | Protect Mimbres Peaks |
| National September 11 Memorial and Museum | | New York | 8 acres (3.2 ha) | |