Great Unconformity protection efforts stalled, but advocates hopeful

Jessica Hill, Las Vegas Review-Journal on Feb 17, 2025

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Las Vegas locals began a project in the 1990s to protect a geological marvel at the edge of town. They made educational signs and were joined by politicians including late Sen. Harry Reid and then-Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, but the area was vandalized soon after.

Thirty years later, groups are no closer to increasing protections for the area made up of Frenchman Mountain, Sunrise Gardens and the Great Unconformity — a slab of exposed rock that reveals a geologic oddity: about 1.2 billion years of Earth’s missing history.

By Frenchman Mountain, a layer of 550-million-year-old sandstone sits beside 1.7-billion-year-old ancient granite, gneiss and schist. At one point, the rocks were 15 to 20 miles deep within the earth’s crust. Geologists believe a large mountain range above it gradually eroded away through wind and rain, leaving the old rocks exposed, and then the sea level rose to cover the area, leaving deposits of younger sandstone atop the ancient rocks.

“The Earth is 4.5 billion years old, so when you touch this, you’re touching one-fourth of the history of the Earth,” said Nick Saines, a retired geology professor and member of the group Citizens for Active Management.

Local groups like Chispa Nevada, Neighbors of the Universe and Citizens for Active Management celebrated the 30th anniversary on Monday of the creation of an interpretive site for the Great Unconformity, and they expressed renewed yet stalled efforts to protect the site in eastern Las Vegas.

“It’s unclear where the status in the protection movement is,” said Steve Rowland, a geology professor at UNLV and member of the group Citizens for Active Management, one of the longtime advocates for protecting the site. “We’re kind of adjusting to the new political reality.”

After the success of Avi Kwa Ame’s national monument designation in 2023, Indigenous activists, conservationists and geologists ramped up efforts to turn the Frenchman Mountain area into Nevada’s next national monument.

They proposed a 32,618-acre national monument that would span Frenchman Mountain and the Rainbow Gardens behind it, Sunrise Mountain, as well as a sacred and historic cave, running up to the boundary of the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.

But Rowland said Monday those protection efforts have stalled since the November election, as the new administration has not expressed interest in adding new national monuments. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum recently directed Interior staff to review past presidents’ decisions to designate certain lands as national monuments.

Rowland plans to change course to fit with the political climate. Rather than working toward a national monument designation, he hopes to talk with Nevada’s congressional delegation to come up with a different protective status.

One option could be adding it to Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto’s Clark County Lands Bill, which includes both federal land development as well as protections. Her bill didn’t pass the last session, but she is re-introducing this session, she said last week.

Nevada state Sen. James Ohrenschall, D-Las Vegas, is also pushing for protections. He is putting forward a resolution urging Congress to conserve the public lands adjacent to Sunrise Mountain, Frenchman Mountain and the Rainbow Gardens.

The land is controlled by the Bureau of Land Management, but it is not properly maintained, Ohrenschall said. He would like to see hiking trails established, as well as parking lots for people to enjoy the area.

“There’s just a lot of potential there where the public could enjoy it,” he said earlier this month.

Native Voters Alliance Nevada, a nonprofit organization that has also been pushing for a national monument designation, is continuing that effort, despite concerns about the Trump administration’s reviews of monuments.

“We know monuments are popular — Nevadans have fought for them and won three times already,” said Mathilda Miller, government relations director, in a statement. “That’s exactly what we’re working on here: building support, making our voices heard, and pushing to protect this special place.”

Miller said her group is conducting Tribal consultations in Southern Nevada as well as engaging with small businesses and community members.

“National monument designations don’t happen overnight, and they certainly aren’t just handed down by a president on a whim,” she said. ”These efforts a labor of love — driven by real people, Tribal Nations, and communities who have deep connections to these landscapes.”

Guadalupe Lyn with Chispa Nevada said she’d like to see more cameras and security systems in place around the area, as well as the enforcement of littering fines.

“They can help us to make sure that we protect and taking seriously the protection of these mountains,” she said.

Rowland is hopeful that groups like Chispa and Neighbors of the Universe are also continuing the work to protect the Great Unconformity and the surrounding mountains.

“I’m not sure I’m going to be here around 30 years from now, and so I don’t want to wait another 30 years for the area to be protected,” Rowland said.

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