The Antiquities Act, which granted Congress and the president the power to preserve federal lands for historic and scientific purposes, was part of the Progressive Era effort to conserve national resources for the future. Once president, Theodore Roosevelt had the power to put into practice the Conservationism that had changed his worldview. In a comprehensive program, his administration supported the passage of legislation to preserve federal land in national parks, to reclaim land, and conserve, for future use, coal and mineral lands, oil reserves, and forests. Between 1901 and 1909, when he left office, Roosevelt had added to the nation’s reserves more than a hundred and fifty million acres, augmenting the 45 million that had already been set aside in the late 19th century. His program, however, dealt with a larger legacy than soil and mineral resources. Roosevelt wanted to protect the nation’s geological and historical inheritance as well.
Under his direction, in 1906, Congress passed the Antiquities Act, which granted authority to reserve federal lands for the preservation of historical artifacts and provided for the protection of historic, prehistoric, and scientific sites. The act also granted the president the authority to proclaim public lands as national monuments. Such monuments include geological features, such as Devil’s Tower in Wyoming, which President Roosevelt made the first national monument in 1906; archaeological sites revealing Native American cultures, such as the Gila Cliff Dwellings in New Mexico; and places of historical significance, such as Fort Pulaski, Georgia. The Antiquities Act also prohibits excavation or destruction of antiquities without permission of the federal government agency in charge of such lands and authorizes permits for archaeological investigations. In 1908 Roosevelt used the act to proclaim the more than 800,000 acres of the Grand Canyon as a natural monument, which ignored legislative expectations that monuments would be small in area. By 1909 he had created 18 national monuments in addition to the five national parks and 51 wildlife refuges he established while in office. The executive power to create national monuments did not remain uncontested. With the declaration of the Jackson Hole National Monument in Wyoming under Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the act of proclaiming national monuments engendered congressional opposition. Since its inception in 1906, the Antiquities Act has been used more than 120 times to protect the nation’s historical and geological heritage in creating or expanding national monuments.
World History
