Arizona would be a home to a new national monument nearly 400,000 acres in size, under a bill introduced Friday by the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee.
Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), the panel’s ranking member, said he wants to designate the land in the southern part of his home state as the Great Bend of the Gila National Monument.
“The Great Bend of the Gila is a sacred place rich with history and deeply significant to all the communities connected to it,” Grijalva said in a statement.
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He said the bill would protect the site “from destructive development and mineral extraction.” It’s known for its jagged cliffs and lava flows and contains many petroglyphs and other forms of rock art.
