Antiquities Act: How Presidents Create National Monuments

1906

enacted, signed June 8 by Theodore Roosevelt

54 U.S.C. §§ 320301-320303

current U.S. Code location

President

designation authority by public proclamation

Federal land only

statutory boundary

Unresolved

reduction or revocation question

This page follows the current U.S. Code text in effect through Public Law 119-120, the 1906 Act as enacted, CRS Report R41330 updated February 11, 2025, CRS Report R49048 updated July 30, 2026, and the July 2026 presidential proclamations modifying Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante. The hard questions are narrow: how far a proclamation may reach, what counts as an object of historic or scientific interest, and whether a later President may pull the boundary back.

Statute grid

Two lines carry most of the legal weight. Section 320301(a) gives the President proclamation power. Section 320301(b) gives the statute its boundary rule. That is why monument fights often become fights about scope, not about whether the President may act at all.

What the President can do

Under 54 U.S.C. § 320301(a), the President may declare by public proclamation historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest on federal land to be national monuments. The proclamation is the act. Congress does not pass a new monument statute each time, and the result is not a national park unless Congress later says so.

We read the Act as a limited delegation, not a blank check. The President may identify the protected objects and reserve the federal land needed for their care. The President may not use the Act to rewrite the public lands code.

Three parts matter at the start: the object must fit the text, the land must be federal, and the reserved area must be the smallest area compatible with proper care and management of the protected objects.

Federal land is the line

The statute reaches land “owned or controlled by the Federal Government.” That phrase keeps the Act inside the federal land system and out of private title.

A monument boundary does not turn private land into federal land. It does not convert state land or erase tribal title by itself. If a proclamation refers to nonfederal parcels, inholdings, future acquisitions, or access across mixed ownership, read those parts with care. The Antiquities Act sets the monument line. It does not supply every property rule around that line.

The object test is broader than many people think

The protected object test comes from the statute: historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest. The first clause points to ruins, structures, and landmarks. The last clause reaches further.

The early Act was tied to archeological sites and cultural heritage protection. Later practice moved beyond ruins. Cameron v. United States upheld the Grand Canyon monument. Cappaert v. United States treated the pool and pupfish at Devil’s Hole as part of the protected purpose of the monument reservation. Not every landscape qualifies automatically, but the Act is not confined to walls and artifacts.

People hear “antiquities” and assume only old stones count. The text is broader than the label.

The proclamation record, in brief

A simple monument count can mislead. A proclamation can create, enlarge, reduce, modify, or restore a monument. Acreage figures also differ sharply between land and marine monuments.

Two cautions keep the record honest. Acreage is not a perfect proxy for management burden. Congress can later alter a monument by statute. The proclamation record is part of the story, not the whole legal life of a monument.

Can a later President shrink or revoke a monument?

The statute answers the first half of the question. It does not expressly answer the second half.

Some presidents have tried to pare back monument boundaries. The modern dispute sharpened when President Trump reduced Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in 2017. President Biden restored those boundaries by proclamation in 2021. President Trump again modified and reduced both monuments by proclamations signed July 13, 2026. CRS treats presidential authority to reduce or revoke monuments as contested, not settled by § 320301.

The competing arguments are direct. One side says the power to create a reservation carries some power to adjust it, especially if the reserved area no longer fits the statutory standard. The other says Congress gave a creation power and said nothing about repeal or major reduction, so a later President cannot undo the reservation unless Congress acts.

The Supreme Court has upheld broad monument use, but not every modern reduction question. In 2026, the Tenth Circuit held that Antiquities Act monument designations are subject to judicial review and remanded the Utah challenge for the district court to interpret the Act’s limits. Congress can change a monument by statute. The Act is a delegated power over federal land; Congress keeps the bigger rulebook.

The cases that still matter

The case law is not long, so the leading opinions matter.

Cameron is the Grand Canyon anchor. Cappaert matters because monument protection may reach water, not just dirt and stone, when reserved water is needed to preserve the protected purpose. The marine cases show the 1906 statute operating in places Congress did not describe in modern ocean terms.

What the Act does not do

The Act does not create national parks. Congress generally does that by statute. A monument may later be redesignated, but the Antiquities Act itself creates national monuments.

The Act does not cover every acre inside a drawn boundary if that land is not federal. Private land inside or near a monument remains private unless another law changes title.

The Act does not settle every management issue inside a monument. Grazing, mining, hunting, fishing, roads, water rights, tribal access, scientific research, and visitor use often turn on the proclamation, valid existing rights, the managing agency’s organic statute, and later agency decisions.

The Act does not create a general public comment process before the President signs a proclamation. Later agency work may trigger separate procedures under other statutes, but designation is a presidential act.

The Act also does not create a general environmental permit system. Its permit section covers examination of ruins, excavation of archeological sites, and gathering of objects of antiquity. It is not a Clean Water Act permit, not an Endangered Species Act incidental take permit, and not a substitute for agency planning.

After designation, management starts

Designation is the start of the legal story, not the end.

A proclamation may assign management to one or more agencies, or leave existing structures in place. Depending on the land, that may involve the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, NOAA, or another federal office. For the broader land manager picture, see Public Lands.

What happens next depends on the site. An agency may write a management plan, regulate access, address grazing or mining claims, or consult with tribes and state and local governments. Those steps can trigger separate laws. NEPA may apply to a later agency action. The Endangered Species Act may require consultation if a federal action may affect listed species. The Antiquities Act gets the monument on the books. Other statutes decide much of the rest.

The 1906 history in five lines

The Act was signed on June 8, 1906, by President Theodore Roosevelt.

Congress passed it after concern about looting, excavation, and destruction of archeological and historic resources.

The National Park Service describes it as the first general federal law protecting cultural and natural resources of historic or scientific interest on federal lands.

Devils Tower was the first national monument. The Grand Canyon became the best-known early test of how far the text could reach.

The same short statute now covers cultural sites, desert landscapes, forests, canyons, and marine areas. That is a long way from the 1906 problem Congress had in mind, but the text is still the text.

Nearby law

The Antiquities Act sits inside a larger public lands system.

The timing is the useful distinction. The Antiquities Act answers who may proclaim a monument and what the proclamation must identify. Other statutes answer what happens after the proclamation, when an agency plans, consults, permits, or regulates.

Frequently asked questions