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Mosca, Colorado USA
Great Sand Dunes National Monument
was established in 1932 by Herbert Hoover, in response to
a local citizens' effort spearheaded by the Ladies' PEO chapters
in the San Luis Valley. In the 1920s, gold was found in the
Great Sand Dunes, and active gold mining in the sand, and
sand extraction for cement production began to occur. San
Luis Valley residents became concerned about long-term protection
of the Great Sand Dunes. An intense but remarkably short and
successful campaign to gain support and protection for the
dunes ensued, culminating in President Hoover's Proclamation:
"Whereas it appears that the public interest would be
promoted by including the lands hereinafter described within
a national monument for the preservation of the Great Sand
Dunes and additional features of scenic, scientific, and educational
interest….now therefore I, Herbert Hoover…do proclaim and
establish the Great Sand Dunes National Monument…" Hoover's
proclamation focuses on the preservation of the dunes, giving
us clear guidance on one of primary interpretive stories:
the dunes themselves, our primary resource. We are equally
clearly directed to also protect and interpret the 'additional
features' which make this landscape so diverse and captivating.
On November 22, 2000, President
Clinton signed the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve
Act of 2000, which authorized the expansion of the national
monument into a national park almost four times its original
size. Like the proclamation of 1932, it was powered largely
by Valley residents who banded together to protect the resources
important to them; in this more modern era, groundwater. Perhaps
most importantly, the legislation authorized the eventual
purchase of privately held property from willing sellers for
inclusion in Great Sand Dunes National Park.
Lands identified as vital
to the protection of park resources included the area known
as the Baca Ranch, recently purchased on behalf of the federal
government by The Nature Conservancy. The Baca includes the
northwestern corner of the dunefield, wetlands, nesting and
migratory bird habitat, and numerous archaeological sites.
This purchase, finalized on September 10, 2004, enabled the
Secretary of the Interior to affirm that “sufficient diversity
of resources has been acquired to warrant designation of the
land as a national park” on September 13, 2004. Great Sand
Dunes National Monument was redesignated as a national park!
 As
part of the Act of 2000, roughly 42,000 acres of national
forest wilderness area were immediately transferred to NPS
management, and were renamed the Great Sand Dunes National
Preserve. Natural resources in this area are quite different
from those in the older national monument or the expanded
national park, and include alpine tundra and lakes, extensive
virgin subalpine forest, aspen forests, and high elevation
wetlands. Further land transfers from the BLM to NPS management
were authorized on the west and south sides of the old monument.
From the new legislation we
gain interpretive emphasis on the geologic story of the dunes
and its associated watersheds, the culturally diverse resources
of the area, and a national desire to "ensure the perpetuation
of the entire ecosystem for the enjoyment of future generations."
Great Sand Dunes National
Park and Preserve is also administered under the provision
of the Organic Act of 1916, which specifies that units of
the National Park system are: "to conserve the scenery
and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein…and
to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and
by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment
of future generations."
[This website is created to show the beauty
and wonder of a great american natural treasure. The contents
are courtesy of the National Park Service. It is created in
English and in Japanese. All the photo images shown here are
taken by Kiyomichi Koike. The copy rights are reserved.]
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