National monuments to be declared in Montana
Copyright 2000, Associated Press
December 22, 2000
The Interior Department is recommending that President Clinton declare two national monuments in Montana, possibly the first in a flurry of last-minute preservation decrees from the White House.
The proposal involves the upper Missouri Breaks in north-central Montana and Pompeys Pillar east of Billings. Both areas have ties to the Lewis and Clark expedition that passed through Montana almost 200 years ago, and large numbers of visitors are expected at the sites in connection with that bicentennial.
The department gave told Gov. Marc Racicot of the recommendations, saying they would be given to Clinton on Thursday. No immediate decision was announced in Washington.
Since taking office in 1993, Clinton has created 11 national monuments and expanded another two. He has the potential to create a half-dozen more before he leaves office next month.
Environmentalists are urging Clinton to declare the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge a national monument to prevent oil drilling. President-elect Bush supports drilling in the refuge.
Other possible monuments include a half-million acres in Arizona proposed as the Sonoran Desert National Monument; 5,300 acres of cone-shaped rock formations in New Mexico known as Tent Rocks; the Owyhee-Bruneau Canyonlands, a 2.7 million-acre expanse of mountains, rivers and desert in Idaho; and the Jack Morrow Hills, a 622,000-acre region of desert in Wyoming.
In Montana, the Breaks proposal would affect 149 miles of the Missouri River from Fort Benton downstream to the Charles M. Russell Wildlife Refuge and adjacent federal land.
Monument status would apply to 377,346 acres in a sparsely settled region that is largely unchanged since Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led their expedition through the area in 1805.
Opponents of the monument plan say the area has retained its qualities because of the good stewardship on both private and public land, and no federal management is needed.
Pompeys Pillar, a 150-foot sandstone outcrop 25 miles outside Billings, carries Clark's signature. He carved his name and the date — July 25, 1806 — into the pillar during his return trip to St. Louis.He called the rock Pompy's Tower in his journals, after the nickname he gave the son of the party's interpreter, Sacagawea.
The inscription is the only remaining physical evidence of Lewis and Clark's historic journey. Archaeological evidence indicates the pillar was the site of religious and ritual ceremonies for thousands of years. The proposed monument would encompass 51 acres.