The Antiquities Act authorized permits for legitimate
archaeological investigations and penalties for taking or destroying antiquities without permission. Additionally, it authorized the president to proclaim "historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest" on federal lands as national monuments, "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." Presidents have used the Antiquities Act's proclamation authority not only to create new national monuments but to enlarge existing ones. For example, Franklin D. Roosevelt significantly enlarged
Dinosaur National Monument in 1938.
Lyndon B. Johnson added
Ellis Island to
Statue of Liberty National Monument in 1965, and Jimmy Carter made major additions to
Glacier Bay and Katmai National Monuments in 1978.
Early 20th century origin The
Antiquities Act of 1906 resulted from concerns about protecting mostly prehistoric
Native American ruins and artifacts (collectively termed "antiquities") on federal lands in the American West. It permitted the president 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". Among the next three monuments he proclaimed in 1906 was
Petrified Forest in
Arizona, another natural feature. In 1908, Roosevelt used the act to proclaim more than of the
Grand Canyon as a national monument. In response to Roosevelt's declaration of the Grand Canyon monument, a putative mining claimant sued in federal court, claiming that Roosevelt had overstepped the Antiquities Act authority by protecting an entire canyon. In 1920, the
United States Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the Grand Canyon was indeed "an object of historic or scientific interest" and could be protected by proclamation, setting a precedent for the use of the Antiquities Act to preserve large areas. Federal courts have since rejected every challenge to the president's use of Antiquities Act preservation authority, ruling that the law gives the president exclusive discretion over the determination of the size and nature of the objects protected.
Mid-20th century In 1918, President
Woodrow Wilson proclaimed
Katmai National Monument in
Alaska, comprising more than . Katmai was later enlarged to nearly by subsequent Antiquities Act proclamations and for many years was the largest national park system unit.
Petrified Forest,
Grand Canyon, and
Great Sand Dunes, among several other
national parks, were also originally proclaimed as national monuments and later designated national parks by Congress. Substantial opposition did not materialize until 1943, when President
Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed
Jackson Hole National Monument in
Wyoming. He did this to accept a donation of lands acquired by
John D. Rockefeller Jr., for addition to
Grand Teton National Park after Congress had declined to authorize this park expansion. Roosevelt's proclamation unleashed a storm of criticism about use of the Antiquities Act to circumvent Congress. A bill abolishing Jackson Hole National Monument passed Congress but was vetoed by Roosevelt, and Congressional and court challenges to the proclamation authority were mounted. In 1950, Congress finally incorporated most of the monument into Grand Teton National Park, but the act doing so barred further use of the proclamation authority in Wyoming except for areas of 5,000 acres or less.
Late 20th century and early 21st century The most substantial use of the proclamation authority came in 1978, when President
Jimmy Carter proclaimed 17 new national monuments in Alaska after Congress had adjourned without passing a major Alaska lands bill. Congress passed
a revised version of the bill in 1980 incorporating most of these national monuments into national parks and
preserves, but the act also curtailed further use of the proclamation authority in Alaska. Carter's 1978 proclamations included
Misty Fjords and
Admiralty Island National Monuments in the U.S. Forest Service and
Becharof and
Yukon Flats National Monuments in the
Fish and Wildlife Service, the first to be created outside of the National Park Service. The latter two became national wildlife refuges in 1980. The proclamation authority was not used again anywhere until 1996, when President
Bill Clinton proclaimed the
Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument in
Utah, after many years of unsuccessful advocacy by conservationists to protect parts of the area. This was the first national monument managed by the
Bureau of Land Management. This action was unpopular in Utah, and bills were introduced to further restrict the president's authority, none of which have been enacted. Most of the 16 national monuments created by President Clinton are managed not by the National Park Service, but by the Bureau of Land Management as part of the
National Landscape Conservation System. President George W. Bush created four marine national monuments in the Pacific Ocean, the largest in the system:
Papahānaumokuākea,
Pacific Islands Heritage,
Mariana Trench, and the
Rose Atoll Marine National Monuments. They are managed by the Fish and Wildlife Service, with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration overseeing the fisheries. President
Barack Obama significantly expanded two of them and added a fifth in the Atlantic Ocean, the
Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument. In the federal case
Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association v. Ross, the
U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia held that "lands" within the Antiquities Act encompasses the submerged lands of the ocean floor, citing Supreme Court precent including
Alaska v. United States. On June 24, 2016, Obama designated the
Stonewall Inn and surrounding areas in
Greenwich Village, New York as the
Stonewall National Monument, the first national monument commemorating
the movement for
LGBT rights in the United States. Obama's establishments included several others recognizing civil rights history, including the
César E. Chávez,
Belmont–Paul Women's Equality,
Freedom Riders, and
Birmingham Civil Rights National Monuments. In December 2017, President Donald Trump substantially reduced the sizes of
Bears Ears and
Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monuments, removing protections on about 2.8 million acres of land where mining could resume. Three lawsuits challenged the legality of this action in federal court, and in October 2021, President Joe Biden reversed the changes. The restoration of the monuments has been challenged in court in an attempt to attack the Antiquities Act. President Biden's proclamations establishing and expanding monuments often incorporated consultation with Native American tribes for management and planning. In 2025, Trump's interior secretary Doug Burgum ordered a review of all withdrawn public lands including national monuments for their exploitation for drilling and mining. ==List of national monuments==