South Dakota’s lone national monument will remain safe under President Donald Trump’s executive order to review any monuments created in the last 21 years.
The order directs Department of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to review all national monuments created by the Antiquities Act since 1996. Those monuments must also be greater than 100,000 acres large.
Jewel Cave was established in 1908 and is around 1,300 acres on the surface.
Bonnie Schwartz is the superintendent at Jewel Cave. She says new administrations typically review recently established monuments to figure out how they’ll be managed.
“As far as Jewel Cave National Monument, I haven’t received any indication that anybody would be looking at the executive orders—or anything—to change Jewel Cave’s status at this point in time," Schwartz says.
South Dakota’s only other national monument was the Fossil Cycad National Monument in the Southern Black Hills. It was established in 1922. According to the Capitol City Journal the monument was de-authorized in 1957.