Establishment of the Chimney Rock National Monument

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.

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

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.

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.

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