Clinton to declare 6 national monuments

Montana's Pompey's Pillar is 200 feet high and only accessible on one side

In this story: Posthumous awards for explorer and guide Clinton and monuments RELATED STORIES, SITES

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Clinton will create at least six new national monuments on Wednesday, CNN has learned.

The two most prominent declarations will be for Upper Missouri River Breaks and Pompey's Pillar, both in Montana and both part of the Lewis and Clark Trail, according to two senior White House sources. The White House ceremony will be built around these designations.

The Missouri Breaks is a roughly 150-mile stretch along a free-flowing section of the Missouri River that was traversed by the Lewis and Clark expedition. The river is currently protected as a national Wild and Scenic River.

The plateaus, cliffs and coulees of the Missouri Breaks provide a habitat for antelope, bighorn sheep, prairie dogs and elk.

In his journal, the explorer William Clark described Pompey's Pillar, some 28 miles east of Billings, as having "a most extensive view in every direction." He added his name and the date he arrived to the carvings done by Indians on the towering rock pillar, carvings that can still be seen today.

Posthumous awards for explorer and guide

To highlight the significance of these designations, the president will be joined by noted Lewis and Clark authors and historians Stephen Ambrose and Dayton Duncan.

At the ceremony, the president will also posthumously promote Clark to the rank of Army captain. White House officials said Clark was promised the commission when he undertook his historic journey in 1804 with Meriwether Lewis, but it never came.

White House aides said Clinton will announce the designations at an event in the White House East Room, where Lewis lived as private secretary to Thomas Jefferson and planned out the expedition with him.

The president will also confer the honorary rank of sergeant to Sacagawea, the woman from the Shoshone tribe who served as a guide to the two explorers, and to York, a slave of Clark's.

The Lewis and Clark expedition started at Wood River, Illinois and ended at the Pacific Ocean at what would be the Washington-Oregon state line, charting 3,700 miles of terrain unexplored by white settlers.

The Upper Missouri Breaks landscape was first described by Lewis and Clark

Clinton and monuments

Since he took office, Clinton has created or expanded 13 national monuments. The designation of national monument makes the sites off-limits to developers.

White House officials were still reviewing two other monument sites that could be added to the president's list Wednesday, officials said. One under consideration is a site in Idaho of a World War II internment camp for Japanese-Americans.

Clinton has been scrambling to provide federal protection for wilderness areas before he leaves office on January 20, hoping to cement an environmental legacy.

Amid calls by some Republicans to roll back the measures, representatives of President-elect Bush have vowed to review all of Clinton's late-term executive actions.

A president's authority to reverse a monument declaration has not been established, although Congress has done so on rare occasions, White House spokesman Elliot Diringer said.

Clinton does not intend, however, to extend monument protection to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, an action sought by some environmental groups.

White House officials have said protections in existing law and prior presidential orders are adequate to protect the area, which Bush has said should be opened to oil exploration and drilling.

CNN White House Correspondent Major Garrett and Reuters contributed to this report.

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U.S. Department of the Interior
National Trust for Historic Preservation
Pompey's Pillar
Glimpses of Our National Monuments

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