Presidential Documents

2825

Federal Register

Vol. 65, No. 11

Tuesday, January 18, 2000

Proclamation 7265 of January 11, 2000

Establishment of the Grand Canyon-Parashant National

Monument

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 beautiful places 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 sinkholes and breccia pipes, structures

2826 Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 11 / Tuesday, January 18, 2000 / Presidential Documents

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 Toroweap 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. Archeological

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, arid 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

Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 11 / Tuesday, January 18, 2000 / Presidential Documents 2827

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 arid 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 CanyonParashant 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 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 CanyonParashant 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.

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This proclamation does not reserve water as a matter of Federal law nor

relinquish any water rights held by the Federal Government existing on

this 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

Billing code 3195–01–P

of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-fourth.

œ–

Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 11 / Tuesday, January 18, 2000 / Presidential Documents 2829

[FR Doc. 00–1296

Filed 1–14–00; 10:45 am]

Billing code 3195–01–C