Rainbow Bridge
Administrative History
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APPENDIX 1:
IMPORTANT EVENTS
1906 Antiquities Act, sponsoring the national monuments, becomes law.
1909 August: John Wetherill, Byron L. Cummings, and W.B. Douglass reach Rainbow Bridge.
1910 May: Monument declared. John Wetherill assigned as Custodian (shared duty with Navajo National Monument).
1933 First year of Rainbow Bridge-Monument Valley survey.
1955 Visitation to Rainbow Bridge exceeds 1,000 people.
1956 Mission 66 first funded by Congress.

March: President Eisenhower signs the Colorado River Storage Project Act.

October: construction of Glen Canyon Dam begins.
1956 Memorandum of Agreement between the Bureau of Reclamation and NPS.
1958 Secretary of the Interior establishes Glen Canyon Recreation Area and designates NPS the administering Agency. Congress passes P.L. 85-868, transferring lands between NPS and the Navajo Nation.
1963 January: BOR closes the gates of the west bank diversion tunnel at Glen Canyon Dam. Lake Powell begins to fill.March: the east bank diversion tunnel gates close, marking the official birth of Lake Powell.
1964 Administrative and operational control of Rainbow Bridge National Monument transfers to Superintendent of Glen Canyon Recreation Area.
1965 Visitation to Rainbow Bridge exceeds 10,000 people. NPS installs the first floating dock facility in Aztec Creek.

May: Memorandum of Agreement with the Navajo Nation is signed. Lake Powell water enters the monument. Visitors can boat to within sight of the bridge.
1972 Congress passes P.L. 92-593, establishing Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.
1974 Jim Mike returns to Rainbow Bridge. Navajo singers sue NPS over Lake Powell waters inundating lower Bridge Canyon.
1978 Native American Religious Freedom Act becomes law.
1980 Visitation to Rainbow Bridge exceeds 100,000 people.
1985 Bureau of Reclamation concludes that Lake Powell is not contributing to any structural impairment of Rainbow Bridge.
1989 Rainbow Bridge National Monument nominated (although never designated) as a World Heritage Site.
1993 General Management Plan finalized.
1994 Hearth excavated at foot of Rainbow Bridge, dated approximately 600 A.D.
1995 Protectors of the Rainbow occupy the monument. Programmatic Agreement signed, creating the Native American Consultation Committee.
1996 Executive Order 13007, the Indian Sacred Sites proclamation.

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Last Updated: 07-Feb-2003