Glimpses of Our National Monuments

MENU

Glimpses of Our
National Monuments

THE NATIONAL MONUMENTS AT A GLANCE

ADMINISTERED BY NATIONAL PARK SERVICE. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
[Number, 32; total area, 3,724 square miles or 2,383,467 acres]

Name	Location	Area (acres)	Distinctive characteristics
Arches 1929	Utah	4,520	Contains extraordinary examples of wind erosion in shape of gigantic arches, windows, and other unique formations.
Aztec Ruins¹ 1923	New Mexico	17	Prehistoric ruin of pueblo type containing 160 rooms and other ruins.
Capulin Mountain (kapu'lin) 1916	do	680	Cinder cone of geologically recent formation.
Casa Grande (ka' sa gran'da) 1918²	Arizona	473	These ruins are among the most noteworthy relics of a prehistoric age and people within the limits of the United States. Discovered in ruinious condition in 1694.
Chaco Canyon (cha'ko) 1907	New Mexico	³21,512	Numerous cliff-dweller ruins, including communal houses, in good condition, and but little excavated.
Colorado 1911	Colorado	13,749	Many lofty monoliths, and is wonderful example of erosion, and of great scenic beauty and interest.
Craters of the Moon 1924	Idaho	49,602	Best example of fissure lava flows; volcanic region with weird landscape effects.
Devils Tower 1906	Wyoming	1,153	Remarkable natural rock tower, of volcanic origin, 1,200 feet in height.
Dinosaur (di'no sor) 1913	Utah	80	Deposits of fossil remains of prehistoric animal life of great scientific interest.
El Morro 1906	New Mexico	240	Enormous sandstone rock eroded in form of a castle, upon which inscriptions have been placed by early Spanish explorers. Contains cliff-dweller ruins. Of great historic, scenic, and ethnologic interest.
Fossil Cycad 1922	South Dakota	320	Area containing deposits of plant fossils.
George Washington's Birthplace 1930	Virginia	22	Site of home in which George Washington was born. Grounds to be restored and replica of the old homestead to be erected.
Glacier Bay 1921	Alaska	³1,164,800	Contains tidewater glaciers of first rank.
Gran Quivira (gran ke-ve-re) 1909	New Mexico	424	One of the most important of earliest Spanish mission ruins in the Southwest. Monument also contains pueblo ruins.
Hovenweep 1923	Utah-Colorado	286	Four groups of prehistoric towers, pueblos, and cliff dwellings.
Katmai (kat'mi) 1918	Alaska	³1,087,990	Wonderland of great scientific interest in study of volcanism. Phenomena exist upon a scale of great magnitude. Includes Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes.
Lewis and Clark Cavern¹ 1908	Montana	160	Immense limestone cavern of great scientific interest, magnificently decorated with stalactite formations. Now closed to public because of depredations by vandals.
Montezuma Castle 1906	Arizona	³160	Prehistoric cliff-dweller ruin of unusual size situated in a niche in face of a vertical cliff. Of scenic and ethnologic interest.
Muir Woods² (mur) 1908	California	426	One of the most noted redwood groves in California, and was donated by Hon. William Kent, ex-Member of Congress. Located 7 miles from San Francisco.
Natural Bridges 1908	Utah	³2,740	Three natural bridges, among largest examples of their kind. Largest bridge is 222 feet high, 61 feet thick at top of arch; arch is 28 feet wide; span, 261 feet; height of span, 157 feet. Other two slightly smaller.
Navajo (nav'-a- ho) 1909	Arizona	360	Contains numerous pueblo, or cliff-dweller ruins, in good preservation.
Petrified Forest 1906	do	25,908	Abundance of petrified coniferous trees, one of which forms a small natural bridge. Is of great scientific interest.
Pinnacles 1908	California	2,980	Many spirelike rock formations, 900 to 1,000 feet high, visible many miles; also numerous caves and other formations.
Pipe Spring 1921	Arizona	40	Old stone fort and spring of pure water in desert region, serves ss memorial to early western pioneer life.
Rainbow Bridge 1910	Utah	100	Unique natural bridge of great scientific interest and symmetry. Height 309 feet above water, and span 278 feet, in shape of rainbow.
Scotts Bluff 1919	Nebraska	1,894	Region of historic and scientific interest. Many famous old trails traversed by the early pioneers in the winning of the West passed over and through this monument.
Shoshone Cavern (sho-sho'-ne) 1909	Wyoming	210	Cavern of considerable extent, near Cody. Not open to visitors at present.
Sitka 1910	Alaska	57	Area of great natural beauty and historic interest as scene of massacre of Russians by Indians. Contains 18 totem poles of best native workmanship.
Tumacacori (tu ma-ka'-ko-re) 1908	Arizona	10	Ruin of Franciscan mission dating from seventeenth century. Being restored by National Park Service as rapidly as funds permit.
Verendrye (ver ron-dre) 1917	North Dakota	250	Includes Crowhigh Butte, from which Explorer Verendrye first beheld territory beyond Missouri River.
Wupatki 1924	Arizona	2,234	Prehistoric dwellings of ancestors of Hopi Indians.
Yucca House¹ (yuc-ca) 1919	Colorado	10	Located on eastern slope of Sleeping Ute Mountain. Is a pile of masonry of great archeological value, relic of prehistoric inhabitants.

¹ Donated to the United States.
²From June 22, 1892, until Aug. 3, 1918, classified as a national park.
³ Estimated.

THE NATIONAL MONUMENTS AT A GLANCE

ADMINISTERED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
[Number, 16; total area, 596 square miles or 381,185 acres]

Name	Location	Area (acres)	Distinctive characteristics
Bandelier (Ban-de ler) 1916	New Mexico	22,075	Vast number of cliff-dweller ruins of unusual ethnological and educational interest, including ruins of Rite de los Frijoles, Otowi, Tsankawi, and others. Some of the tools, implements, and simple household equipment of the former inhabitants have been restored as they were centuries ago.
Chiricahua 1924	Arizona	4,480	Natural rock formations—pillars, balanced rocks, and formations resembling animals, faces, etc.
Devil Postpile 1911	California	800	Consists of peculiar hexagonal basaltic columns, like an immense pile of posts. The columns lie in the pile at all angles from vertical to almost horizontal. Said to rank with famous Giant's Causeway of Ireland.
Gila Cliff Dwellings (he'la) 1907	Arizona	160	Cliff-dweller ruins. Four natural cavities in the face of an overhanging cliff 110 feet high, of a grayish-yellow volcanic formation, are divided into small rooms by walls built of adobe and small stones, which are in a good state of preservation. The ruins are situated in rough and broken country and are accessible only by trail.
Holy Cross 1929	Colorado	1,392	2 crevices on side of Mount of the Holy Cross, which when filled, or partially filled, with snow form a figure in the shape of a Greek cross. Object of much public and religious interest.
Jewel Cave 1908	South Dakota	¹1,280	Cavern of limestone formation. Consists of a series of chambers, connected by narrow passages, with numerous side galleries.
Lava Beds 1925	California	45,967	Unusual and unique exhibits of volcanic action and lava flows in the abape of peculiar lava caves and tunnels in great numbers and of considerable size. In many of these caves rivers of perpetual ice are found and Indian petroglyphs carved and painted upon their walls indicate possible occupancy by early historic and prehistoric races. Battle ground of Modoc Indian war of 1873.
Lehman Caves 1922	Nevada	593	Caves of light-gray and white limestone, honey-combed by tunnels and galleries of stalactite formations.
Mount Olympus 1909	Washington	298,730	Contains many objects of unusual scientific interest, including numerous glaciers. It is a real wilderness area, having no settlements, no supply points, nor human habitations within it. Bands of the rare Roosevelt elk, numbering several thousand head, of a species native to the region and not found elsewhere, have their summer feeding grounds within the monument area.
Old Kasaan (ka-san) 1916	Alaska	38	Abandoned Haida Indian village in which remain totem poles, grave houses and monuments, and portions of the original framework of the buildings.
Oregon Caves 1900	Oregon	480	Caves in limestone formation of great variety and beauty. These assume odd, grotesque, and fantastic forms of considerable extent and are situated in an attractive environment.
Sunset Crater 1930	Arizona	3,040	A volcanic crater with lava flows and ice caves, near famous San Francisco Peaks.
Timpanogos Cave 1922	Utah	250	Limestone cavern. The cave is almost 600 feet in length. Many beautiful effects are emphasized by the electric lights installed in the cave.
Tonto 1907	Arizona	¹640	Two cliff-dweller ruins just off the Roosevelt Globe Highway, one to the southwest of the road and the other on the west side of the canyon. They consist of two and three storied walls of adobe with the supporting beams and lintels of windows and low doors still in place.
Walnut Canyon 1915	Arizona	960	Contains cliff dwellings of marked scientific and popular interest built in under the outward sloping canyon walls, utilizing the projecting limestone ledges as foundations. Instead of being of the communal type, those cliff houses were apparently built for separate families and contain from six to eight rooms.
Wheeler 1908	Colorado	300	Volcanic formations of unusual scientific interest ss illustrating erratic erosion. Unusual combination of fantastic pinnacles and interesting gorges.

THE NATIONAL MONUMENTS AT A GLANCE

ADMINISTERED BY THE WAR DEPARTMENT
[Number, 10; total area, 642 acres]

Name	Location	Area (acres)	Distinctive characteristics
Abraham Lincoln's Birthplace 1916	Kentucky	110	Contains the log cabin and part of the farm where Abraham Lincoln was born.
Big Hole Battle Field 1910	Montana	5	Site of battle field on which battle was fought Aug. 9, 1877, between a small force of United States troops and a much larger force of Nez Perce Indians, resulting in rout for the Indians.
Cabrillo 1913	California	.5	Of historic interest because of discovery of the territory now partly embraced in the State of California by Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo who at this point first sighted land on Sept. 28, 1542.
Castle Pinckney 1924	South Carolina	3.5	Fortification built in 1810 to replace a Revolutionary fort.
Chalmette 1907	Louisiana	17	Erected in memory of the Battle of New Orleans, which was fought on Jan. 8,1819.
Fort Marion 1924	Florida	18	Fort built by Spaniards in 1656.
Fort Matanzas 1924	do	1	Relic of Spanish invasion.
Fort McHenry 1925	Maryland	47	Restored and preserved as birthplace of "Star-Spangled Banner."
Fort Niagara 1923	New York	.0074	Site for erection of cross to commemorate a cross erected by Father Millett in 1688 on what is now the Fort Niagara Military Reservation.
Fort Pulaski 1924	Georgia	20	Built in 1810 to replace Fort Greene, of the Revolution.
Fort Wood 1924	New York	2.5	Site of the Statue of Liberty.
Kennesaw Mountain 1928	Georgia	60	Site of important Civil War engagement fought June 27, 1864.
Kitty Hawk 1927	North Carolina	None	Scene of first sustained flight by heavier-than-air machine.
Meriwether Lewis 1925	Tennessee	300	Contains grave of Captain Lewis, of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
Mound City Group 1923	Ohio	57	Famous group of prehistoric mounds in Camp Sherman Military Reservation.
White Plains Battle Field 1926	New York	None	Memorial tablet to indicate the position of the Revo utionary Army under the command of General Washington.

Top

Last Modified: Thurs, Oct 19 2000 10:00:00 pm PDT
glimpses/monuments/glimpsest1.htm