One hundred years of national monuments

Describes a century of national monuments spanning from the Progressive Era & Antiquities Act of 1906 through the present. Theodore Roosevelt set the pattern for US presidents' willingness to designate monument status in a host of sites, a pattern that continued though Truman but generally waned between 1945 & 1975. Democratic presidents Carter & especially Clinton revived the trend, in the latter's case sometimes controversially so. His invocation of the Antiquities Act for environmental protection marks one of Bill Clinton's major accomplishments. While the future of the Antiquities Act appears guaranteed, what remains uncertain is funding for sound management of our monuments as well as for other federal lands that combine to make up almost 30 percent of US land. References. K. Coddon