Grand Canyon National Monument Within Grand Canyon National Forest, Arizona

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This picture records a layered piece of conservation policy: a national monument set inside a larger federal forest. In January 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed the canyon's rim and surrounding lands a national monument under the Antiquities Act, placing it within the forest reserve that had been created in the 1890s to protect timber and watersheds. The two designations overlapped, so the monument's protections were added to the forest's existing ones. The canyon's scale and geology drew growing public attention in those years, and the monument was a step toward the park status it later received.

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