Establishment of the Chimney Rock National Monument, 59275-59278 [X12-10927]

Agencies

• Executive Office of the President

[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 188 (Thursday, September 27, 2012)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 59275-59278]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: X12-10927]




                        Presidential Documents 



Federal Register / Vol. 77 , No. 188 / Thursday, September 27, 2012 / 
Presidential Documents

___________________________________________________________________

Title 3--
The President

[[Page 59275]]

                Proclamation 8868 of September 21, 2012

                
Establishment of the Chimney Rock National 
                Monument

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                The Chimney Rock site in southwestern Colorado 
                incorporates spiritual, historic, and scientific 
                resources of great value and significance. A thousand 
                years ago, the vast Chaco civilization was drawn to the 
                site's soaring massive rock pinnacles, Chimney Rock and 
                Companion Rock, that rise hundreds of feet from the 
                valley floor to an elevation of 7,600 feet. High atop 
                ancient sandstone formations, Ancestral Pueblo People 
                built exquisite stone buildings, including the highest 
                ceremonial ``great house'' in the Southwest.

                This landscape, encompassing both Chimney Rock and 
                Companion Rock, and known today as Chimney Rock, holds 
                deep spiritual significance for modern Pueblo and 
                tribal communities and was one of the largest 
                communities of the Pueblo II era (900-1150 A.D.). The 
                Chimney Rock site also includes nationally significant 
                archaeology, archaeoastronomy, visual and landscape 
                characteristics, and geological and biological 
                features, as well as objects of deep cultural and 
                educational value.

                In 1100 A.D., the area's cultivated fields and 
                settlements extended from the valley floors to the mesa 
                tops. The pinnacles, Chimney Rock and Companion Rock, 
                dominated the landscape. Today, peregrine falcons nest 
                on the pinnacles and soar over ancient structures, the 
                dramatic landscape, and the forested slopes of the 
                Piedra River and Stolsteimer Creek drainages, which are 
                all framed by the high peaks of the San Juan Mountains.

                Migratory mule deer and elk herds pass through the area 
                each fall and spring as they have for thousands of 
                years, and live there during the critical winter 
                months. Merriam's turkeys, river otters, bald eagles, 
                golden eagles, mountain lions, bats, woodpeckers, and 
                many species of migratory birds also live in the area 
                among the Ponderosa Pine, pinon, and juniper. Several 
                desert plants usually found farther south grow there, 
                including a species of cholla cactus that does not 
                occur naturally outside the Sonoran Desert and is 
                believed to be associated with deliberate cultivation 
                by the Ancestral Pueblo People.

                The Chimney Rock site is one of the best recognized 
                archaeoastronomical resources in North America. 
                Virtually all building clusters have views of Chimney 
                Rock and Companion Rock, which frame multiple 
                astronomical alignments and illustrate the Ancestral 
                Pueblo People's knowledge of astronomy. Hundreds of 
                archaeological ruins and buildings from the Pueblo II 
                period are within the boundaries of the site, including 
                a Chaco-style communal multi-room ``great house'' built 
                in the late eleventh century to command observations of 
                the surrounding landscape and astronomical phenomena.

                The Chimney Rock site features an isolated Chacoan 
                settlement among a complex system of dispersed 
                communities bound by economic, political, and religious 
                interdependence centered in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, 
                about 100 miles south of Chimney Rock. Chimney Rock 
                continues to contribute to our knowledge about the 
                Ancestral Pueblo People and their understanding and 
                command of their environment.

[[Page 59276]]

                Today, descendants of the Ancestral Pueblo People 
                return to this important place of cultural continuity 
                to visit their ancestors and for other spiritual and 
                traditional purposes. It is a living landscape that 
                shapes those who visit it and brings people together 
                across time. Since the 1920s, there has been 
                significant archaeological interest in Chimney Rock. 
                Because it does not appear to have been reoccupied 
                after the early 1100s, Chimney Rock offers a valuable 
                window into the cultural developments of the Pueblo II 
                era and affords opportunities to understand how 
                geology, ecology, and archaeology interrelate. Because 
                visitors travel from areas near and far, these lands 
                support a growing travel and tourism sector that is a 
                source of economic opportunity for the community, 
                especially businesses in the region. They also help to 
                attract new residents, retirees, and businesses that 
                will further diversify the local economy.

                In 1970, Chimney Rock was listed on the National 
                Register of Historic Places, and its spectacular 
                landscape has been open to visitors ever since.

                WHEREAS section 2 of the Act of June 8, 1906 (34 Stat. 
                225, 16 U.S.C. 431) (the ``Antiquities Act''), 
                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 is in the public interest to preserve and 
                protect the objects of scientific and historic interest 
                at Chimney Rock;

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the 
                United States of America, by the authority vested in me 
                by section 2 of the Antiquities Act, hereby proclaim, 
                set apart, and reserve as the Chimney Rock National 
                Monument (monument) the objects identified above and 
                all lands and interests in lands owned or controlled by 
                the Government of the United States within the 
                boundaries described on the accompanying map entitled 
                ``Chimney Rock National Monument'' and the accompanying 
                legal description, which are attached to and form a 
                part of this proclamation, for the purpose of 
                protecting those objects. These reserved Federal lands 
                and interests in lands encompass approximately 4,726 
                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 the monument are hereby appropriated and 
                withdrawn from all forms of entry, location, selection, 
                sale, leasing, or other disposition under the public 
                lands laws, including 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 
                monument's boundaries not owned or controlled by the 
                United States shall be reserved as part of the monument 
                upon acquisition of ownership or control by the United 
                States.

                The establishment of this monument is subject to valid 
                existing rights. The Secretaries of Agriculture and the 
                Interior shall manage development under 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.

                Nothing in this proclamation shall be construed to 
                alter the valid existing water rights of any party, 
                including the United States.

                The Secretary of Agriculture (Secretary) shall manage 
                the monument through the Forest Service, pursuant to 
                applicable legal authorities, consistent with the 
                purposes and provisions of this proclamation. The 
                Secretary shall prepare, within 3 years of the date of 
                this proclamation, a management plan for

[[Page 59277]]

                the monument, and shall promulgate such regulations for 
                its management as deemed appropriate. The plan will 
                provide for protection and interpretation of the 
                scientific and historic objects identified above, and 
                continued public access to those objects, consistent 
                with their protection. The plan will protect and 
                preserve access by tribal members for traditional 
                cultural, spiritual, and food- and medicine-gathering 
                purposes, consistent with the purposes of the monument, 
                to the maximum extent permitted by law.

                The Secretary shall prepare a transportation plan that 
                addresses actions necessary to protect the objects 
                identified in this proclamation, including road 
                closures and travel restrictions. For the purpose of 
                protecting the objects identified above, the Secretary 
                shall limit all motorized and mechanized vehicle use to 
                designated roads, except for emergency or authorized 
                administrative purposes.

                The Secretary shall, in developing any management plans 
                and any management rules and regulations governing the 
                monument, consult with the Secretary of the Interior. 
                The final decision to issue any management plans and 
                any management rules and regulations rests with the 
                Secretary of Agriculture. Management plans or rules and 
                regulations developed by the Secretary of the Interior 
                governing uses within national parks or other national 
                monuments administered by the Secretary of the Interior 
                shall not apply within the monument.

                Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to enlarge 
                or diminish the jurisdiction of the State of Colorado 
                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 Forest 
                Service 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.

                The Secretary may carry out vegetative management 
                treatments within the monument, except that timber 
                harvest and prescribed fire may only be used when the 
                Secretary determines it appropriate to address the risk 
                of wildfire, insect infestation, or disease that would 
                endanger the monument or imperil public safety.

                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 the monument and not to locate or settle upon any of 
                the lands thereof.

[[Page 59278]]

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                twenty-first day of September, in the year of our Lord 
                two thousand twelve, and of the Independence of the 
                United States of America the two hundred and thirty-
                seventh.
                
                
                    (Presidential Sig.)

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