National Monuments

An eclectic group of places, landmarks, structures and other objects of historic, scenic or scientific interest situated on lands owned or controlled by the federal government and set aside for preservation, usually by presidential proclamation. Included are selected fossil beds, cliff dwellings and other Native American ruins, pueblo and Spanish church ruins, effigy mounds, caves, cliffs, buttes, canyons, lava beds, sand dunes, natural bridges, petrified forests, sites of volcanic activity, glacier areas, sub-arctic ecosystems, marine gardens, coastal mountain fjords, northern boreal forests, and fragile habitats of specific species of animals, birds, fish and other wildlife. National Monuments in the U.S. are managed by the Bureau of Land Management.