Browns Canyon National Monument is a 21,586-acre protected landscape in central Colorado along the Arkansas River between Buena Vista and Salida. Designated on February 19, 2015, under the Antiquities Act by President Barack Obama, it combines one of the nation’s most popular whitewater rafting destinations with important habitat for bighorn sheep, peregrine falcons, elk, and golden eagles, and is also used for fishing and hiking. Its creation followed decades of unsuccessful efforts to win congressional protection, roadless and wilderness reviews, and a 1993 wilderness study area designation. Today it is jointly managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the United States Forest Service.