winter months. Merriam’s turkeys, river otters, bald eagles, golden eagles, mountain lions, bats, woodpeckers, and many species of migratory birds also live in the area among the Ponderosa Pine, pinon, and juniper. Several desert plants usually found farther south grow there, including a species of cholla cactus that does not occur naturally outside the Sonoran Desert and is believed to be associated with deliberate cultivation by the Ancestral Pueblo People.
The Chimney Rock site is one of the best recognized archaeoastronomical resources in North America. Virtually all building clusters have views of Chimney Rock and Companion Rock, which frame multiple astronomical alignments and illustrate the Ancestral Pueblo People’s knowledge of astronomy. Hundreds of archaeological ruins and buildings from the Pueblo II period are within the boundaries of the site, including a Chaco-style communal multi-room ‘‘great house’’ built in the late eleventh century to command observations of the surrounding landscape and astronomical phenomena.
The Chimney Rock site features an isolated Chacoan settlement among a complex system of dispersed communities bound by economic, political, and religious interdependence centered in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, about 100 miles south of Chimney Rock. Chimney Rock continues to contribute to our knowledge about the Ancestral Pueblo People and their understanding and command of their environment.
Today, descendants of the Ancestral Pueblo People return to this important place of cultural continuity to visit their ancestors and for other spiritual and traditional purposes. It is a living landscape that shapes those who visit it and brings people together across time. Since the 1920s, there has been significant archaeological interest in Chimney Rock. Because it does not appear to have been reoccupied after the early 1100s, Chimney Rock offers a valuable window into the cultural developments of the Pueblo II era and affords opportunities to understand how geology, ecology, and archaeology interrelate. Because visitors travel from areas near and far, these lands support a growing travel and tourism sector that is a source of economic opportunity for the community, especially businesses in the region. They also help to attract new residents, retirees, and businesses that will further diversify the local economy.
In 1970, Chimney Rock was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and its spectacular landscape has been open to visitors ever since. WHEREAS section 2 of the Act of June 8, 1906 (34 Stat. 225, 16 U.S.C. 431) (the ‘‘Antiquities Act’’), authorizes the President, in his discretion, to declare by public proclamation historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest that are situated upon the lands owned or controlled by the Government of the United States to be national monuments, and to reserve as a part thereof parcels of land, the limits of which in all cases shall be confined to the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected;
WHEREAS it is in the public interest to preserve and protect the objects of scientific and historic interest at Chimney Rock;
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by the authority vested in me by section 2 of the Antiquities Act,
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