The TRAVELER'S JOURNAL: May twenty-seventh, celebrating America's national monuments.

There are 91 relatively undiscovered national treasures scattered from sea to shining sea.

Many of these gems are the handiwork of Mother Nature, products of millennia of wind and water, from South Dakota's Jewel Cave and Wyoming's Devils Tower, to the 275 square miles of New Mexico's White Sand Dunes.

Other are designated gateways to our country's past. These man-made memorials anchor us to our forebears and help us to understand their principals and aspirations. This list runs from Arizona's Navajo National Monument, to famous forts and battlefields, to icons like Lady Liberty in New York harbor.

Only Congress can create a national park, but the Antiquities Act of 1906 authorized presidents to designate landmarks, structures of historic or scientific interest on land owned or controlled by the government to be monuments. In the last five years, 15 new national monuments have been created. Smaller and less visited than parks, they're one of 14 designated areas managed by the U.S. Park Service.

Muir Woods, just north of San Francisco, shelters the area's last stand of virgin redwoods. Buck Island Reef near St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands includes a rare underwater national monument. It's milelong shoreline is a fairyland of emerald throated hummingbirds, pelicans, ginger and cactus.

Our national monuments: any or all are worth a visit and a thought of thanks on Memorial Day, or anytime of the year.

FMI For info America's National Monuments, www.nps.gov

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