the antiquities act: bridging historic preservation and environmental conservation

The Antiquities Act: Bridging Historic Preservation and Environmental Conservation

Anthony DelRosario

Old & Green: Where Historic Preservation and

Evironmental Conservation Overlap

Professor Barry Stiefel

Master in Preservation Studies

Tulane School of Architecture

1 CSAR-2600 - Old & Green – Professor Barry Stiefel – June 20, 2008

Anthony DelRosario – Master in Preservation Studies - Tulane School of Architecture

In four sentences, the American Antiquities Act of 1906 opened a road to faster

preservation and conservation of public land in America. Section Two gave the

President of the United States a broad sweeping authorization, which no other law can

match, to proclaim public land and objects upon the land as national monuments

deemed to be of historic or scientific interest. The Act was passed during a period that

archeological ruins of the Southwest were being threatened by the exploitation of

antiquities hunters. Rothman proposes that during this period “European Americans

retained a self-induced cultural inferiority from their relatively short history” (16). The

combination of these helped to pass the Act and give the President a tool to quickly

reserve land as a national monument without an act of Congress which could take time

in the bureaucratic process.

A Century of Groundwork

Important organizations involved with outputs of the Antiquities Act and ideas of

preservation can be traced back to the early nineteenth century as far back as the

1810s. The General Land Office was established in 1812 to oversee the surveying and

transfer of ownership of public land. The General Land Office was created with the sole

purpose of generating revenue for the federal treasury (Daly and Middaugh 220). The

Early History of the Preservation Movement of East Michigan University states that “in

1813 one of the first acts of preservation was the successful effort to save from

demolition Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.” During the 1840s, the

United States acquired a million square miles of western territory which was an impetus

for the creation of the Department of the Interior in 1849 (Townsend 5). At this point, the



General land Office was transferred to the Interior Department from the Treasury

Department. The Early History of the Preservation Movement of East Michigan

University states that shortly after this the first preservation group in the United Sates

was formed, Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union.

The final quarter of the nineteenth century saw a flurry of activity in the areas of

historic preservation and environmental conservation. In 1872 Yellowstone was

established as the nation’s first national park. The Casa Grande archeological reserve

was created in 1889 as result of the first national funding for historic preservation (East

Michigan University). National forest reserves and national wildlife refuges were set

aside in 1891 and 1903 respectively. Douglas states that “the retention value and long-

term protection needs of certain public lands was recognized as a public-interest

counterpoint to prevailing disposal philosophy” of the General land Office (24). In 1890,

the War Department began acquiring and preserving important American battlefields

such as Vicksburg, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, and Cherokee (Mackintosh 41). This

activity shows the growing interest in conservation of natural resources and

preservation of both prehistoric and important contemporary historic areas.

A Century of Influence

McManamon states that “the Antiquities Act established basic public policies for

archeological preservation that would, during the course of the 20th century, expand to

include other types of historic properties and cultural resources” (19). In 1916 the

National Park Service was established within the Department of the Interior. Over the

next two decades national monuments and battlefields were transferred from the



General Land Office and War Department to the National Park Service who was

“expressly charged with preserving their historic features” (Townsend 6). In 1933, the

National Park Service conducted the Historical American Building Survey which

documented 860 buildings with photographs and drawings (Townsend 8). A generation

after the Antiquities Act was passed, “broadening of applications of the policies” came

with the passing of the Historic Sites Act of 1935 which “asserted concerns of the

national government and responsibilities for recognizing and providing technical

assistance to historic American sites, buildings, objects, and antiquities, no matter

where they are located within the United States” (McManamon 20). This expansion of

coverage extended to additional properties of national significance whether or not on

land controlled or owned by the federal government (McManamon 20). Section 462 (b)

of the act assigns the duty to the National Park Service to “make a survey of historic

and archaeologic sites, buildings, and objects for the purpose of determining which

possess exceptional value as commemorating or illustrating the history of the United

States”. The National Park Service created the National Historic Landmark program

from the findings of the Historical American Building Survey. With the Historic Sites Act,

the federal government is given explicit charge of historic preservation previously only

implicitly given in the Antiquities Act.

During the boom economy of the post World Was Two era in the 1950s and

1960s, new growth drove America. Unfortunately, the ideas of smart growth, adaptive

reuse, sustainability, farmland preservation, easements, transfer of development rights,

and green building had not come into wide use or in some cases conceived. Interstates

and suburban developments were two ideas that did gain wide usage. Cities were given



federal money for urban renewal programs which led to the destruction and loss of

historically significant or architecturally interesting buildings and neighborhoods

(Townsend 8). Preservation groups based on local and regional concerns began

pressuring the National Park Service but received little help as the National Park

Service interpreted the Historic Sites Act as not giving authority to act upon local and

regional preservation concerns (Townsend 8).

In 1966, two generations after the enactment of the Antiquities Act, the National

Historic Preservation Act became a law. The federal government was officially directed

by Congress to provide leadership in the preservation historic and prehistoric resources

on the federal, state, and local level (Townsend 9). A major outcome of National

Historic Preservation Act was the National Register of Historic Places which integrated

the National Historic Landmark program. The act also had a great ideological impact.

Moe states that the National Historic Preservation Act helped foster the revolutionary

idea that “the public sector could play a supportive, productive role in local preservation

efforts (24). Also importantly, Section 106 makes federal agencies accountable for their

harmful impact on culturally significant properties (Moe 24). The National Historic

Preservation Act through an effective partnership of the public and private sector has

provided a forum for public review and has given preservation a voice in the discussions

that affect the future of communities (Moe 24).

The 1970s produced several important laws in the areas of historic preservation

and environmental conservation. The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 was

signed on January 1, 1970 and became the first major environmental law as a result of

the destruction caused by the building of the interstate system in the 1950s and the



1960s. The National Environmental Policy Act “requires agencies to undertake an

assessment of the environmental effects of their proposed actions prior to making

decisions” (Council on Environmental Quality 2). The Federal Land Policy and

Management Act of 1976 gave organic ideals to the Bureau of Land Management, the

government agency in charge of a large amount of multiple use public land which was

created in 1946 when the General Land Office was consolidated with the Grazing

Service. The law made clear that public lands had value other than the money made

from selling the land (Daly and Middaugh 225). “Under the Federal Land Policy and

Management Act, the public lands are to be retained in public ownership and managed

for multiple use and sustained yield in a manner that will protect scientific, historical, and

archeological values, among other things, based on a continuing inventory of all public

lands and resources and a comprehensive land-use planning process” (Douglas 26).

The Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979 was created to strengthen the

legal protection of archeological resources after several failed attempts to use the

Antiquities Act to convict looters in the southwest (McManamon 20-21). Instead of

amending the Antiquities Act, this new act was created to prevent any weakening of the

Antiquities Act. In 1976 federal tax laws gave incentives for commercial rehabilitation of

buildings on the National Register of Historic Places (Mackintosh 43). This decade also

saw “the single greatest act of land preservation in American history” when President

Jimmy Carter used the Antiquities Act to proclaim 56 million acres of Alaska as national

monuments (Andrus and Freemuth 93).



A Second Century of Influence

As the twenty first century begins, the Antiquities Act begins its second century of

existence. From its beginnings as a law to protect prehistoric archeological sites from

looting or vandalism, the act has “provided a foundation of public policy from which

more specific public attention to and preservation of historic places and structures,

cultural landscapes, and other cultural resources developed during the course of the

20th century” (National Park Service). Young states, “by setting policies for

archaeological investigation, the act encouraged us to see our heritage not as a

commercial asset but as a public treasure, something to be treated with the utmost

respect, deserving only the best practices, highest scholarship, and most up-to-date

technology in its identification, preservation, and interpretation” (84). What started as a

means to protect prehistoric resources has led to new ideas of historic preservation and

environmental conservation on the federal, tribal, state, and local levels. Communities

now use adaptive reuse, and sustainability to help preserve the historic character and

use easements, transfer of development rights, and green building to help conserve the

environment. In this quickly changing time, we must continue act locally with the aim of

impacting nationally or globally. Without the continued efforts of environmental

conservation, the not too distant future may contain new historic preservation acts

concerning antiquities of our present, the Oil Age.

i CSAR-2600 - Old & Green – Professor Barry Stiefel – June 20, 2008


Sources

Andrus, Cecil D., and John C. Freemuth. "President Carter's Coup: An Insider's View of

the 1978 Alaska Monument Designations." The Antiquities Act : A Century of

American Archaeology, Historic Preservation, and Nature Conservation. Ed. David

Harmon, Francis P. McManamon, and Dwight T. Pitcaithley. Tucson: University of

Arizona Press, 2007.

Council on Environmental Quality. A Citizen’s Guide to the NEPA. Washington, D.C.:

Executive Office of the President, 2007.

Daly, Elena, and Geoffrey B. Middaugh. "The Antiquities Act Meets the Federal Land

Policy and Management Act." The Antiquities Act : A Century of American

Archaeology, Historic Preservation, and Nature Conservation. Ed. David Harmon,

Francis P. McManamon, and Dwight T. Pitcaithley. Tucson: University of Arizona

Press, 2007.

Douglas, John G. "Historic Preservation on the Public Domain." Cultural Resources

Management 22.4 (1999): 24-28.

East Michigan University. "Early History of the Preservation Movement"

<http://www.emich.edu/public/geo/history.html>.

Mackintosh, Barry. "The National Park Service and Cultural Resources." Cultural

Resources Management 22.4 (1999): 41-44.

McManamon, Francis P. "The Antiquities Act: Setting Basic Preservation Policies."

Cultural Resources Management 19.7 (1996): 18-23.

Moe, Richard. "The National Historic Preservation Act: Creating a 30-Year Partnership."

Cultural Resources Management 19.6 (1996): 23.

National Park Service. Antiquities Act 1906-2006. “About the Antiquities Act.”

<http://www.nps.gov/archeology/sites/antiquities/about.htm>

ii CSAR-2600 - Old & Green – Professor Barry Stiefel – June 20, 2008


Rothman, Hal. "The Antiquities Act and National Monuments - A Progressive

Conservation Legacy." Cultural Resources Management 22.4 (1999): 16-18.

Townsend, Jan. "The Department of Everything Else, Including Historic Preservation."

Cultural Resources Management 22.4 (1999): 5-10.

Young, Dwight. "In the Beginning - at 100, the Antiquities Act has proven its worth."

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