[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 14 (Monday, January 22, 2001)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 7359-7363]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-2103]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 66, No. 14 / Monday, January 22, 2001 /
Presidential Documents
[[Page 7359]]
Proclamation 7398 of January 17, 2001
Establishment of the Upper Missouri River Breaks
National Monument
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
The Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument
contains a spectacular array of biological, geological,
and historical objects of interest. From Fort Benton
upstream into the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife
Refuge, the monument spans 149 miles of the Upper
Missouri River, the adjacent Breaks country, and
portions of Arrow Creek, Antelope Creek, and the Judith
River. The area has remained largely unchanged in the
nearly 200 years since Meriwether Lewis and William
Clark traveled through it on their epic journey. In
1976, the Congress designated the Missouri River
segment and corridor in this area a National Wild and
Scenic River (Public Law 94-486, 90 Stat. 2327). The
monument also encompasses segments of the Lewis and
Clark National Historic Trail, the Nez Perce National
Historic Trail, and the Cow Creek Island Area of
Critical Environmental Concern.
Lewis and Clark first encountered the Breaks country of
the monument on their westward leg. In his journal,
Clark described the abundant wildlife of the area,
including mule deer, elk, and antelope, and on April
29, 1805, the Lewis and Clark expedition recorded the
first big horn sheep observation by non-Indians in
North America. Lewis' description of the magnificent
White Cliffs area on the western side of the monument
is especially vivid, and not just for his sometimes
colorful spellings:
``The hills and river Clifts which we passed today
exhibit a most romantic appearance.... The bluffs of
the river rise to hight of from 2 to 300 feet and in
most places nearly perpendicular; they are formed of
remarkable white sandstone which is sufficiently soft
to give way readily to the impression of water...
``The water in the course of time ... has trickled down
the soft sand clifts and woarn it into a thousand
grotesque figures, which with the help of a little
immagination and an oblique view, at a distance are
made to represent eligant ranges of lofty freestone
buildings, having their parapets well stocked with
statuary; collumns of various sculptures both grooved
and plain, are also seen supporting long galleries in
front of these buildings; in other places on a much
nearer approach and with the help of less immagination
we see the remains or ruins of eligant buildings; some
collumns standing and almost entire with their
pedestals and capitals; others retaining their
pedestals but deprived by time or accident of their
capitals, some lying prostrate an broken othe[r]s in
the form of vast pyramids of conic structure bearing a
serees of other pyramids on their tops...
As we passed on it seemed as if those seens of
visionary inchantment would never have and [an] end;
for here it is too that nature presents to the view of
the traveler vast ranges of walls of tolerable
workmanship, so perfect indeed are those walls that I
should have thought that nature had attempted here to
rival the human art of masonry...''
The monument is covered with sedimentary rocks
deposited in shallow seas that covered central and
eastern Montana during the Cretaceous period.
[[Page 7360]]
Glaciers, volcanic activity, and erosion have since
folded, faulted, uplifted, and sculpted the landscape
to the majestic form it takes today.
The area remains remote and nearly as undeveloped as it
was in 1805. Many of the biological objects described
in Lewis' and Clark's journals continue to make the
monument their home. The monument boasts the most
viable elk herd in Montana and one of the premier big
horn sheep herds in the continental United States. It
contains essential winter range for sage grouse as well
as habitat for prairie dogs. Lewis sent Jefferson a
prairie dog specimen which was, as Lewis noted at the
time, ``new to science.'' Abundant plant life along the
River and across the Breaks country supports this
wildlife. The lower reach of the Judith River, just
above its confluence with the Missouri, contains one of
the few remaining fully functioning cottonwood gallery
forest ecosystems on the Northern Plains. Arrow Creek,
originally called Slaughter River by Lewis and Clark,
contains the largest concentration of antelope and mule
deer in the monument as well as important spawning
habitat for the endangered pallid sturgeon. An undammed
tributary to the Missouri River, Arrow Creek is a
critical seed source for cottonwood trees for the flood
plain along the Missouri.
The cliff faces in the monument provide perching and
nesting habitat for many raptors, including the sparrow
hawk, ferruginous hawk, peregrine falcon, prairie
falcon, and golden eagle. Several pairs of bald eagles
nest along the River in the monument and many others
visit during the late fall and early winter. Shoreline
areas provide habitat for great blue heron, pelican,
and a wide variety of waterfowl. The River and its
tributaries in the monument host forty-eight fish
species, including goldeye, drum, sauger, walleye,
northern pike, channel catfish, and small mouth
buffalo. The monument has one of the six remaining
paddlefish populations in the United States. The River
also supports the blue sucker, shovel nose sturgeon,
sicklefin, sturgeon chub, and the endangered pallid
sturgeon.
The Bullwacker area of the monument contains some of
the wildest country on all the Great Plains, as well as
important wildlife habitat. During the stress-inducing
winter months, mule deer and elk move up to the area
from the river, and antelope and sage grouse move down
to the area from the benchlands. The heads of the
coulees and breaks also contain archeological and
historical sites, from teepee rings and remnants of
historic trails to abandoned homesteads and lookout
sites used by Meriwether Lewis.
Long before the time of Lewis and Clark, the area was
inhabited by numerous native tribes, including the
Blackfeet, Assiniboin, Gros Ventre (Atsina), Crow,
Plains Cree, and Plains Ojibwa. The confluence of the
Judith and Missouri Rivers was the setting for
important peace councils in 1846 and 1855. In 1877, the
Nez Perce crossed the Missouri and entered the Breaks
country in their attempt to escape to Canada. The Cow
Island Skirmish occurred in the Breaks and was the last
encounter prior to the Nez Perce surrender to the U.S.
Army at the Battle of Bear Paw just north of the
monument. Pioneers and the Army followed Lewis and
Clark in the 1830s establishing Fort Piegan, Fort
McKenzie, and Fort Benton. Remnants of this rich
history are scattered throughout the monument, and the
River corridor retains many of the same qualities and
much of the same appearance today as it did then.
Section 2 of the Act of June 8, 1906 (34 Stat. 225, 16
U.S.C. 431), 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 appears that it would be in the public
interest to reserve such lands as a national monument
to be known as the Upper Missouri River Breaks National
Monument:
[[Page 7361]]
NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the
United States of America, by the authority vested in me
by section 2 of the Act of June 8, 1906 (34 Stat. 225,
16 U.S.C. 431), do proclaim that there are hereby set
apart and reserved as the Upper Missouri River Breaks
National Monument, for the purpose of protecting the
objects identified above, all lands and interests in
lands owned or controlled by the United States within
the boundaries of the area described on the map
entitled ``Upper Missouri River Breaks National
Monument'' attached to and forming a part of this
proclamation. The Federal land and interests in land
reserved consist of approximately 377,346 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 this monument are hereby appropriated and
withdrawn from all forms of entry, location, selection,
sale, or leasing or other disposition under the public
land laws, including but not limited to withdrawal from
location, entry, and patent under the mining laws, and
from disposition under all laws relating to mineral and
geothermal leasing, other than by exchange that
furthers the protective purposes of the monument. The
establishment of this monument is subject to valid
existing rights. The Secretary of the Interior shall
manage development on 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.
The Secretary of the Interior shall prepare a
transportation plan that addresses the actions,
including road closures or travel restrictions,
necessary to protect the objects identified in this
proclamation.
For the purpose of protecting the objects identified
above, the Secretary shall prohibit all motorized and
mechanized vehicle use off road, except for emergency
or authorized administrative purposes.
Lands and interests in lands within the proposed
monument not owned by the United States shall be
reserved as a part of the monument upon acquisition of
title thereto by the United States.
The Secretary of the Interior shall manage the monument
through the Bureau of Land Management, pursuant to
applicable legal authorities, including the National
Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, to implement the purposes
of this proclamation.
Because waters of the Upper Missouri River through the
monument area have already been reserved through the
Congress's designation of the area as a component of
the National Wild and Scenic River System in 1976, this
proclamation makes no additional reservation of water,
except in two small tributaries, the Judith River and
Arrow Creek. These tributaries contain outstanding
objects of biological interest that are dependent on
water, such as a fully functioning cottonwood gallery
forest ecosystem that is rare in the Northern Plains.
Therefore, there is hereby reserved, as of the date of
this proclamation and subject to valid existing rights,
a quantity of water in the Judith River and Arrow Creek
sufficient to fulfill the purposes for which this
monument is established. Nothing in this reservation
shall be construed as a relinquishment or reduction of
any water use or rights reserved or appropriated by the
United States on or before the date of this
proclamation.
Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to enlarge
or diminish the jurisdiction of the State of Montana
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 Bureau
of Land Management 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.
[[Page 7362]]
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 this monument and not to locate or settle upon any
of the lands thereof.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
seventeenth day of January, in the year of our Lord two
thousand one, and of the Independence of the United
States of America the two hundred and twenty-fifth.
(Presidential Sig.)
Billing code 3195-01-P
[[Page 7363]]
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TD22JA01.184
[FR Doc. 01-2103 Filed 1-19-01; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3195-01-C