Last updated: April 21, 2021
Article
Great Sand Dunes' Founding Legislation: A Timeline
NPS Photo
by Sydney Stover, Park Ranger
The hard work involved in the preservation and protection of the Great Sand Dunes spans decades and involved countless people - from locals to US Presidents.
Efforts first began in the late 1920s when a local chapter of the women’s P.E.O. club began the movement to save this natural wonder from being used to make cement and glass. The ladies campaigned to Colorado state leaders, senators, and congressmen and eventually got what they wanted - the Great Sand Dunes protected for all time.
On March 17, 1932, Great Sand Dunes was officially proclaimed a National Monument by authority of President Herbert Hoover. Great Sand Dunes became the 36th National Monument in the National Park system. It was one of 5 approved out of 90 proposals for monument status in 1932. The original boundaries protected an area of 35,528 acres.
On March 12, 1946, President Harry S. Truman signs Proclamation No. 2681 and alters the boundaries of Great Sand Dunes National Monument, "for the preservation of the great sand dunes and additional features of scenic, scientific, and educational interests."
On June 7, 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower also alters the boundary of Great Sand Dunes National Monument. Two decades later, on October 20, 1976, the U.S. Congress designated the Great Sand Dunes Wilderness—a wilderness area encompassing 32,643 acres (51 sq miles/ 132 km2) - within the monument. This wilderness is the only one in the U.S. that protects a saltbush-greasewood ecosystem and includes the entire dunefield as well as much of the area west of the dunes. The Wilderness Act also prevents anything mechanical from entering designated wilderness. Since this time motor vehicles have been banned from going onto the dunefield.
On November 22, 2000, Great Sand Dunes National Monument became Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve through an Act of Congress (Public Law 106–530) cited as the ‘‘Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve Act of 2000’.Before Great Sand Dunes could officially be declared a park, new land had to be acquired, more research done, and locals needed to be involved in the process, so for four years the area was known as Great Sand Dunes National Monument and Preserve.
On September 23, 2004, Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton formally designated the existing Great Sand Dunes National Monument and Preserve as the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve (See 69 F.R. 57355.) after the NPS met the land acquisition requirements laid out in Public Law 106-530.Today, the Great Sand Dunes are visited by over 500,000 people from around the world, annually. Without the efforts of the many locals and leaders that came together to preserve and protect this place, there might not be much sand left to play in.