ANTIQUITIES ACT

ANTIQUITIES ACT of 1906, officially, An Act for the Preservation of American Antiquities, was the first federal general historic preservation law. The act authorized the president to designate as national monuments "historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest" on federal lands. It also required permits for excavation on public lands and provided criminal penalties for unauthorized damage to or appropriation of objects of antiquity on those lands.

In 1906, the primary goal of Congress was to stop the decay and plundering of Native American ruins in the Southwest. Among the earliest monuments were Devils Tower in Wyoming, El Morro in New Mexico, and Montezuma Castle in Arizona. But presidents interpreted the act's language broadly and transformed the law into a conservation measure to protect large amounts of scenic or wilderness lands, some of which later became national parks. In the first such expansive use of the Antiquities Act, Theodore Roosevelt in 1908 designated 806,400 acres surrounding the Grand Canyon as a monument to protect structures of scientific interest. Subsequently, every president except Richard Nixon used the act to establish or expand national monuments. The power of presidents to unilaterally designate monuments often has created controversy. For example, President Bill Clinton created eight monuments in the final two months of his presidency, generating new calls to restrict presidential authority under the act.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cunningham, Richard B. Archaeology, Relics, and the Law. Durham, N.C.: Carolina Academic Press, 1999.

Lee, Ronald F. The Antiquities Act of 1906. Washington, D.C.: National Park Service, 1971.

Rothman, Hal. Preserving Different Pasts: The American National Monuments. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1989.

Cynthia R.Poe

See alsoConservation ; National Park System .