America's National Monuments : University Press of Kansas : 9780700606726 : 0700606726 : 30 Apr 1994 : With the stroke of a pen, Theodore Roosevelt created the Grand Canyon National Monument in 1908. Without his quick action, commercial developers, already coveting this national treasure, would have invaded the canyon's floor. Not until eleven years later did Congress make it a national park, an act that provided funds for development and preservation unavailable to national monuments. According to Hal Rothman, the designation of national monument?decided at the discretion of the president?was the saving grace for many natural and archaeologically significant sites as debates on national park designations languished in Congress. But lacking sufficient financial backing, national monuments inevitably ended up taking a back seat to the national park system in the early twentieth century. Looking at the history of the national monuments, from the passage of the Antiquities Act of 1906?a