Proclamation—Meriwether Lewis National Monument

Whereas, J. Clint Moore and his wife, Ethel Moore, of the County of Maury in the State of Tennessee, did on the twenty-seventh day of December, one thousand nine hundred and twenty-four, and R.W. Grimes, Judge of the County Court of Lewis County, Tennessee, did on the fifth day of January, one thousand nine hundred and twenty-five, pursuant to the Act of Congress entitled, "An Act for the Preservation of American Antiquities," approved June eighth, nineteen hundred and six, by their certain deed of relinquishment and conveyance, properly executed in writing and acknowledged, relinquish, remise, convey and forever quit claim to the United States of America the following mentioned lands at that time held in private ownership and situate in the Third Civil District of Lewis County, in the State of Tennessee, and particularly described as follows, to wit: Beginning at a stake in the middle of the Hohenwald and Summertown Highway, with oak bush north nine and one-half degrees at twenty feet, thence north fifty-nine degrees west with said Highway one thousand feet to a stake; thence north thirty degrees east two thousand one hundred and seventy-eight feet to a stake; thence south fifty-nine degrees east one thousand feet to a stake; thence south thirty degrees west two thousand one hundred and seventy-eight feet to the beginning, containing by survey fifty acres, as ascertained by survey of W.R.M. McKissick, October twenty-three, nineteen hundred and twenty-two.

Whereas, said relinquishments and conveyances have been accepted by the Secretary of the Interior in the manner and for the purposes prescribed in said Act of Congress, and

Whereas, the grave of Captain Meriwether Lewis, marked by a monument erected by the State of Tennessee, is located on this tract of land, and

Whereas, the faithful and effective services of Captain Meriwether Lewis as an officer of the United States Army; as the leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition; and as Governor of the Louisiana Territory, are of transcendent importance to the Nation.

Now, therefore, I, Calvin Coolidge, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the power vested in me by section two of said Act of Congress, do proclaim that said lands hereinbefore described are hereby reserved from appropriation and use of all kinds under the public land laws and set aside as the Meriwether Lewis National Monument.

Warning is hereby given to all unauthorized persons not to appropriate, cut, injure, destroy, deface, or take away any trees or any other property on said lands, or to occupy, settle, or locate upon any lands reserved by this proclamation.

The Secretary of War shall have the supervision, management, and control of this monument.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington this 6th day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and twenty-five, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and forty-ninth.

CALVIN COOLIDGE

By the President:
CHARLES E. HUGHES, Secretary of State.