Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

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Glimpses of our National Monuments

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  • wcu_great_smoky_mtns-10656.jpg
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  • DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR HUBERT WORK, Secretary NATIONAL PARK SERVICE STEPHEN T. MATHER, Director GLIMPSES OF OUR NATIONAL MONUMENTS GENERAL INTRODUCTION In addition to the national parks, the National Park Service of the Department of the Interior has under its jurisdiction a second class of reservations called national monuments. These national monuments are created by presidential proclamation under the authority contained in the act of Congress of June 8, 190C,1 entitled "An act for the preservation of American antiquities." This act authorizes the President of the United States " 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." DISTINCTION BETWEEN NATIONAL PARKS AND NATIONAL MONUMENTS It is difficult to define in exact terms the difference between national parks and national monuments, beyond the fact that national parks are always established by act of Congress, while national monuments are created by presidential proclamation. Generally speaking, national monuments are small areas reserved to protect objects of historic, prehistoric, or scientific value within their boundaries, while the national parks are larger areas containing scenery of the first order. However, Mesa Verde National Park, established by Congress, contains some of the best-preserved prehistoric cliff dwellings in the world; General Grant National Park, established to insure the preservation of the famous giant sequoia 1 The text of this act is given on p. 68.
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Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).