Nearly every president in the past 100 years has declared national monuments, from Teddy Roosevelt creating the Grand Canyon National Monument to George W. Bush preserving 10 islands and 140,000 square miles of ocean waters in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

Politicians wanted to mine the Grand Canyon for zinc and copper, and Theodore Roosevelt said, 'No.'

There has always been opposition to these types of things. When Theodore Roosevelt declared the Grand Canyon as a national monument [it later was made a national park], my family was among the objectors. Now everybody claims on behalf of their ancestors that they encouraged it. These are places of enormous and enduring value.

In golf, 'close' is like the north and south rim of the Grand Canyon.

It's not at all naturally human to see something like the Grand Canyon as beautiful.

The damage done to U.S. prestige by the feckless, buffoonish George W. Bush will take years to repair.