National Monument and National Park Status

Early National Park Service officials pose on a dune during designation as a national monument, 1932.

NPS Archives

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 mining in the sand 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…"

 

George W. Bush's Secretary of Interior Gale Norton designates Great Sand Dunes as a national park and preserve in 2004. The legislation was introduced by Scott McInnis (R) in the House, and Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R) and Wayne Allard (R) in the Senate.

NPS

On November 22, 2000, Congress passed 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 era, the resource that was threatened was groundwater, as various companies sought to extract huge amounts of groundwater to pipe to rapidly expanding cities along the Front Range. The legislation authorized the 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 Baca Ranch (see section above), owned for the past two decades by a consortium of commercial water developers. 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 Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton 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 expanded into a large national park and preserve.

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, subalpine forests, woodlands and streams.

The park and preserve now protect most of the dunes’ natural hydrological system, from mountain watershed to wetlands, ensuring "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 wildlife 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."