Friends of the Missouri Breaks Monument

That's what U.S. presidents take when they invoke provisions of the Antiquities Act to protect chunks of land as national monuments, and the moves sometimes are unpopular locally.

Surely that was the case with President Bill Clinton's designation of the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument back in 2001.

But history shows that over the long term, says documentarian and author Dayton Duncan, the objections will fade and the nation — including most area residents — will be grateful for this gift.

Duncan spoke in Great Falls last week to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the National Landscape Conservation System.

He came here after spending time in the Grand Canyon where he was working on a script for an upcoming film on United States' national parks. It will be another collaboration with noted film-maker Ken Burns, who produced a documentary about Lewis and Clark on which Duncan shared credits.

When the Grand Canyon was designated as a monument by Theodore Roosevelt almost 100 years ago, the move was criticized roundly, especially on the rims of the canyon.

Today most Americans can't imagine the canyon any other way — say, with trophy homes, industry or theme parks — and they're grateful for Roosevelt's foresight.

The point, says Duncan, is that an exceptional, special place such as the Grand Canyon — or the Missouri Breaks — once protected, "will become even more important as time goes on."

Time will show that President Clinton was right to do what he did just hours before leaving office 4 1/2 years ago, Duncan said in a visit with the Tribune editorial board.

He said the Breaks and the White Cliffs area within it are, as expressed by the late historian Stephen Ambrose, "the beating heart of the Lewis and Clark Trail."

In fact, Duncan said, he can think of few places like it anywhere — places that combine history and jaw-dropping beauty.

There are lots of historic sites such as battlefields, he said, and lots of pretty places, but "very few places I can think of that have both of those."

The glory of the Breaks, he said, is that it has scarcely changed since before Lewis and Clark came through.

"From the baseline of Meriwether Lewis' descriptions, to Karl Bodmer's paintings of the 1830s," and on through the steamboat shipping days, the Breaks are rich in history and are as spectacular today as they were 200 years ago.

As for the local landowners, he said there was never any intention by the federal government to deprive them of rights or property that they already have, and in fact the designation specifically preserves their rights.

The Landscape Conservation System, of which the Breaks are a part, is very different from the parks system, he noted, in that it allows all existing uses. It just says the Bureau of Land Management will treat this land differently from its other holdings.

Much of the resentment is a "natural response of anybody, particularly in the West, where much land is owned by the federal government, but it's a distant landlord. They feel like anybody does when the landlord comes in and says, 'I'm taking care of this.'"

But presidents designating monuments take the long view, and with very few exceptions that view has been proven right.

White Cliffs of the Missouri River, BLM Photo

Monument will prove its worth in long term