Park and Historic Preservation Laws

The 2006 edition of Federal Historic Preservation Laws includes 24 Federal laws and portions of laws that pertain to the preservation of the Nation's cultural heritage. Arranged chronologically, the laws trace the evolution of historic preservation and cultural resource management philosophy from the Antiquities Act of 1906 through the Sunken Military Craft Act of 2004.

The laws laid the foundation for the National Park Service as the lead Federal preservation agency and for the national historic preservation partnership that includes NPS, other Federal agencies, Tribal Preservation Offices, State Historic Preservation Offices, Certified Local Governments, and private organizations. The publication includes changes to the laws through December 2005.

Please note: The citations in this book are no longer up-to-date. We have retained this edition online for its historic value, and for the plain-language context that it provides about these laws.

Please consult our webpage about Federal Historic Preservation Laws, Regulations, and Orders at http://www.nps.gov/history/laws.htm for up-to-date citations and links to the current text of Federal historic preservation laws.

Each section listed below opens in a separate pdf.

The complete 2006 Federal Historic Preservation Laws book is also available as a pdf (1.7 MB)

TABLE OF CONTENTS (PDF Format)
Laws Listed Chronologically

• Introduction
• Antiquities Act of 1906
• National Park Service Organic Act, Section I, NPS Mission
• National Park Service Organic Act, Section 8, Reports on Threatened Landmarks and New Area Studies
• Historic Sites Act of 1935
• Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949
• National Trust for Historic Preservation, Creation and Purpose
• Archeological and Historic Preservation Act
• National Historic Preservation Act of 1966
• Department of Transportation Act, Declaration of Purpose and Section 4(f)
• National Environmental Policy Act of 1969
• National Marine Sanctuaries Act
• Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972
• Department of Transportation Act, Section 4(i), as created by the Amtrak Improvement Act of 1974
• Mining in the National Parks Act of 1976, Section 9
• Public Buildings Cooperative Use Act of 1976
• American Indian Religious Freedom Act
• Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979
• Internal Revenue Code of 1986, Section 170(h), Qualified Conservation Contributions
• Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987
• Internal Revenue Code, Section 47, Rehabilitation Credit
• Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
• Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA)
• American Battlefield Protection Act of 1996
• Sunken Military Craft Act of 2004
• Appendix, Selected Regulations from the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Selected Executive Orders (EO), and Selected Standards
• Index

ADDITIONAL LAWS AND GUIDELINES (HTML Format)

• America's Federal Historic Preservation Case Law, 1966-1996
• America's National Park System: The Critical Documents
• Director's Order #28: Cultural Resource Management Guideline
• National Park Service Public Laws: 1979-1994
• NPS Office of Legislative and Congressional Affairs
• NPS Office of Policy Office