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<br />, <br />;.... <br /> <br />I. LOCATION <br /> <br />The Black Canyon Df the GunnisDn NatiDnal MDnument is <br />located in MontrDse CDunty Dn the "Western Slope of <br />ColoradD", in the Third CDngressiDna1 District. <br /> <br />II. PURPOSE AND SIGNIFICANCE <br /> <br />Under the prDvisiDns and Dbjectives Df the NatiDnal <br />Park Service's 1916 Organic Act, the Black Canyon uf <br />the GunnisDn NatiDnal Monument was established by <br />President Herbert H. HDover (Proclamation Number 2033) <br />Dn March 2, 1933. The proclamation, in part cited, <br />". . . for the preservation of the spectacular gorges and <br />additional features of scenic. scientific, and <br />educational interest. .." <br /> <br />The B lack Canyon is a textbook examp Ie of a <br />superimposed stream. The walls of the canyon rise <br />precipitously 2000 feet or more above the Gunnison <br />River, which roars in the canyon depths at a gradient <br />of 150 feet-per-mile in the monument. <br /> <br />The Black Canyon is one of the world's foremost wild <br />canYDns. The ancestral GunnisDn River was contained by <br />volcanic deposits and committed to an unchanging <br />course. It carved 50 miles of narrow, awesome canyon <br />through hard Precambrian, metamorphic rDck. Twelve of <br />the nost spectacular miles of the canyon are within the <br />Black Canyon National MDnument. <br /> <br />The associated vegetational ecosystems provide habitat <br />for a variety of wildlife (or significance are <br />black-tailed deer, bighorn sheep, black bear, wintering <br />elk, golden eagle, the endangered peregrine falcon, and <br />a variety of seasonal raptors). <br /> <br />The Black Canyon is situated just west of the <br />Continental Divide in the Southern Rocky !-lountains, <br />within the Colorado plateau natural region Df the <br />National Park System. The themes represented at Black <br />Canyon of the Gunnison National Monument are: geologic <br />and geomDrphologic histDry, dry cDnifer fores t, <br />woodland, western river strand, river system <br />develDpment. and early explDration and use by man. <br /> <br />4 <br />