Since 1848 the Federal government has owned a vast portion of Western Colorado. The U.S. first acquired most of eastern Colorado through the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Following the Treaty of Hidalgo in 1848, Mexico ceded to the United States the portion of Colorado not acquired by the Louisiana Purchase. In 1850, the Federal Government purchased Texas’ claims to Colorado, and the present boundaries of Colorado were established. (Source: Colorado State Archives) The area currently designated as the Colorado National Monument was part of the land purchased from Texas. It was already Federal land when President Howard Taft officially approved it’s designation as a national monument in 1911. Since 1911, all costs incurred, maintenance, trail and road building, a visitor’s center, and employee salaries have been borne by visitor fee’s and the tax dollars of every hard working American. Re-designation will not open the door to expand the park, in fact, quite the opposite. The Antiquities Act empowers the President of the United States to designate monuments or expand the boundaries of existing monuments without the consent of Congress or local or state officials. Designation to a national park requires an act of Congress and likewise once a national park has been designated it would take an act of Congress to change it’s status or borders.