Washington, D.C. — Amidst crumbling rock, vast desert and bustling cultural centers, many historic sites and artifacts in America’s southwest are falling victim to relentless heat, harsh freezes, insidious water seepage, vandalism and the toll of time. Unless steps are taken, these southwestern treasures’ survival into the next millennium is uncertain.

In its ongoing mission to preserve and protect America’s heritage, Save America’s Treasures — a national, public-private effort between the White House Millennium Council and the National Trust for Historic Preservation — will visit significant historic and cultural sites in Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado. The visits will draw national public attention to the plight of these threatened resources and help spur interest in their preservation.

First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, honorary chair of the Millennium Committee to Save America’s Treasures, will lead the tour beginning May 19. Millennium Committee co-chair and National Trust President Richard Moe will join the First Lady in Santa Fe, NM, to witness first hand the precarious condition of some of this country’s most breathtaking cultural resources. The group will also visit Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe; Bandelier National Monument; San Estaban del Rey Mission Church and Convent at the Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico; and the Southwestern Pieta in Albuquerque.

"The Southwest is home to some of this country’s most fascinating and diverse cultural resources," said Moe. "From the awe-inspiring native cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde, to the fragile and sacred adobe church at Acoma Pueblo, to the astounding first photographs of Pluto at the Lowell Observatory, this tour will underscore how much of our history is at stake."

Two of the historic places and collections to be visited by Save America’s Treasures have appeared on the National Trust’s annual list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Places: the Adobe Churches of New Mexico in 1996 and Mesa Verde National Park in 1998. All the sites represent thousands of years of Southwest history; the stories they tell can shine a light on our past for the next thousand years if steps are taken to secure their future.

Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, AZ — Pluto, the ninth planet in our solar system, was discovered at this world-famous astronomical research observatory in 1930. The observatory was established in 1894 by Dr. Percival Lowell to study the possibility of life on Mars. The largest privately operated nonprofit observatory in the world, it lacks the resources to protect the turn-of-the-century wooden structure from fire, and to properly archive its vast library of historically and scientifically significant photos and documents for future generations.

Mesa Verde National Park, Durango, CO — Sprawling across more than 52,000 acres of rugged canyon and tableland in southwestern Colorado, Mesa Verde is America’s best-known National Park dedicated to archaeological resources. Designated a National Park by Congress in 1906 and a World Heritage Site in 1978, Mesa Verde contains the world’s most important and best-preserved collection of pre-Columbian cliff dwellings, remnants of the Ancestral Puebloan culture that flourished in the area from the 6th through the 13th century. Today this awe-inspiring place is in peril. Of the more than 600 cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde, the National Park Service has the resources to provide regular maintenance for only 40 to 50. Problems arising from chronically inadequate funding were compounded in 1996 when a fire damaged some sites and exposed others to erosion. Some are in such poor condition that they could be lost within a few years unless steps are taken soon to protect them. If support for stabilization and ongoing maintenance is not found quickly, this link with a vanished civilization — and a treasure of global significance — could crumble into dust.

Palace of the Governors/Segesser Hide Paintings, Santa Fe, NM — Built in 1610 in Santa Fe, Palace of the Governors was the seat of nearly three centuries of government and witness to a colorful history of Spanish, Mexican and American settlement. Moisture is slowly claiming this evocative adobe structure, the oldest public building in the U.S. Now a museum, Palace of the Governor houses the Segesser Hides, early 18^th-century paintings on animal hides. The two paintings, which depict Indians on horseback attacking an Apache village and the ambush of Spaniards and Pueblo Indians, require cleaning, surface stabilization and proper encasement to survive into the new millennium.

Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico — For nearly 350 years, and beginning around 1200 AD, Bandelier’s ancient cliff ruins were home to the rural Pueblo population, in contrast to the urban centers of Pueblo life at Mesa Verde. Running nearly two miles along the base of Frijoles Canyon, the dwellings, petroglyphs and other structures at Bandelier are being washed away by erosive rain. Planning and impact studies are urgently required to determine how to proceed with preservation of this threatened treasure.

San Esteban del Rey Mission Church and Convent, Acoma Pueblo, NM — The earthen structure represents over 350 years of evolution of this region. It is a symbol of the zealotry of Spanish conquistadores, the tenacity of frontier settlers and the profound spiritualism of the present day Acoman. Well-intended efforts to preserve the church were undertaken in the 1970s, but the use of improper, nontraditional materials resulted in further deterioration of the structure. The current-day community lacks the technical skills to properly preserve the buildings and is working with Cornerstones Community Partnerships to develop this special expertise.

Southwest Pieta, Albuquerque, NM — The large, multi-colored fiberglass outdoor sculpture by Luis Jimenez personifies of the mythic lovers of Mexican legend, Ixtaccihuatl and Popcateptl, standing in the heart of one of Albuquerque’s oldest Hispanic neighborhoods. The region’s harsh elements — acid rain, unrelenting sunlight and extreme freeze-thaw cycles — have inflicted considerable damage to the sculpture’s surface.

Save America’s Treasures is a public-private partnership between the White House Millennium Council and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, dedicated to the celebration and preservation of our nation’s threatened cultural treasures for future generations, including significant historic structures, monuments, documents, objects and collections that document and illuminate the history and culture of the United States. The Millennium Committee to Save America’s Treasures provides guidance and expertise to the historic effort, and is led by Honorary Chair Hillary Rodham Clinton and co-chairs Richard Moe, President of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and Susan Eisenhower, granddaughter of former President Dwight D. Eisenhower. As a private-sector partner to the White House Millennium Council, the National Trust coordinates the Save America’s Treasures public awareness and education campaigns and works with two associate partners, Heritage Preservation and the National Park Foundation, to raise funds for the most urgent preservation needs identified at the state and national levels. For more information, visit www.saveamericastreasures.org.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation, chartered by Congress in 1949, is a private, non-profit membership organization dedicated to protecting the irreplaceable. It fights to save historic buildings and the neighborhoods and landscapes they anchor. Through education and advocacy, the National Trust is revitalizing communities across the country and challenging citizens to create sensible plans for the future. It has eight regional offices and 20 historic sites, and works with thousands of community groups nationwide.