#1698 The Future of America's National Monuments
Listening to America
Listening to America
4.6 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 6 April 2026
⏱️ 58 minutes
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Summary
Clay's conversation with Dr. Susan Ryan of the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center in Cortez, Colorado, about the history of the National Monuments and Antiquities Act, signed into law by President Theodore Roosevelt on June 8, 1906. The Monuments and Antiquities Act gives the president of the United States virtually unlimited authority to designate national monuments on America's public lands by executive order alone. Teddy Roosevelt named the first 18, beginning with Devils Tower in Wyoming, and, at the end of his second term, established the Grand Canyon National Monument, covering more than 800,000 acres. Most subsequent presidents have designated National Monuments, including Donald Trump in his first term. Dr. Ryan says this vast grant of presidential authority has always been controversial, particularly now, and there are stirrings of a test case that will reach the Supreme Court sometime in the next couple of years. Can a subsequent president reduce the size of a National Monument or remove it altogether? And what oversight does Congress have or should it have in these matters? This podcast was recorded on February 23, 2026.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello everyone and welcome to my introduction to this week's podcast. |
| 0:04.0 | I've had a great conversation just now with Dr. Susan Ryan, who is the Executive Vice |
| 0:09.0 | President of the Research Institute at Crow Canyon Archaeological Center down in |
| 0:14.0 | extreme southwestern Colorado, down in Cortez. |
| 0:17.0 | She's a good friend of mine. |
| 0:18.0 | We're co-hosting a wonderful event this fall at Cortez, at Crow Canyon, |
| 0:25.6 | on the National Monuments and Antiquities Act. |
| 0:29.1 | This event will be taking place at Crow Canyon, September 13th through 19th, |
| 0:36.0 | seven days, six nights. |
| 0:41.7 | I'll be one of the three major presenters, along with Dr. Ryan, my friend, and Davina Smith, |
| 0:47.7 | who's Diné, Navajo, and the co-chair of the Bears'eer's Intertribal Coalition. |
| 0:51.9 | So there will be field trips and long, interesting discussions. |
| 0:55.8 | We'll be wandering around the Four Corners area. Anyway, she's an extraordinary scholar, an archaeologist, and I'm very eager to do this |
| 1:03.1 | project and hope you will want to join us. |
| 1:05.5 | So today we talked a little bit about the background to the Monuments and Antiquities Act. |
| 1:10.1 | We tried to give some sense of the background where things are today, the current crisis |
| 1:14.2 | in which there is a pushback, you know, Senator Lee of Utah, wanted to introduce legislation, |
| 1:22.7 | which he then pulled back in which Congress would have to affirm any new designation of a national monument. |
| 1:29.2 | So there is a sense in the minds of many that there are too many and that the recent parcels |
| 1:34.8 | are too big and that they are not sufficiently grounded in the original intent of the |
| 1:41.6 | legislation. All those are highly controversial points of view, |
| 1:45.0 | but they're part of the national mix, |
... |
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