The legislature shall provide for the identification, acquisition, restoration, enhancement, preservation, and administration of scenic, historic, archeologic, scientific, and recreational areas, sites, records, and objects, and for their use and enjoyment by the people.Mont. Const. art. IX, § 4

History

Sources

This section was new to the 1972 Constitution and did not appear in any form in the 1889 Constitution. It reflects the concerns of many Montana citizens at the time that state historical sites were being lost or destroyed.The Proposed 1972 Constitution for the State of Montana, Supplement to: The Billings Gazette, Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Montana Standard, Dillon daily Tribune-Examiner, Great Falls Tribune, Daily Ravalli Republican, Havre Daily News, Helena Independent Record, Kalispell Inter Lake, Lewistown Daily News, Livingston Enterprise, Miles City Star, Missoula Missoulian, www.umt.edu/media/law/library%5CMontanaConstitution%5CCampbell/1972MTConstNewspaperSupp.pdf In particular, citizens were concerned with the preservation of "ghost towns and archaeological sites" in the face of growing tourism to such sites and the state in general.Id. The newspaper supplement issued prior to the vote on ratification stated, "This section reflects a desire to prevent heedless ruin of our historical sites and monuments." Id. One newspaper article reported that sponsors of the section claimed there were fifty historical sites and five hundred ghost towns in the state.Constitutional Convention Newspaper Clippings, Brown Collection, William J. Jameson Law Library. Accessed at http://www.umt.edu/media/law/library/MontanaConstitution/brown/Const.%20Conv.%20newspaper%20clippings%20ocr.pdf.

Drafting

The initial proposal, introduced by Daphne Bugbee, was titled "PUBLIC SIGHTLINESS AND GOOD ORDER" and read, "The state shall conserve and develop its natural beauty, objects and places of historic or cultural interest, sightliness, and physical good order, and for that purpose private property shall be subject to reasonable regulation." It was submitted to the Natural Resources and Agriculture Committee. Montana Constitutional Convention Proceedings 1971-1972, prepared by the Constitutional Convention Editing and Publishing Committee, Vol. 1., p. 240. Accessed at http://courts.mt.gov/portals/113/library/mt_cons_convention/vol1.pdf The proposal was part of an entirely new article proposed by the Natural Resources and Agriculture Committee on the environment and natural resources. Montana Constitutional Convention Proceedings 1971-1972, prepared by the Constitutional Convention Editing and Publishing Committee, Vol. 2. p. 550. Accessed at http://courts.mt.gov/portals/113/library/mt_cons_convention/vol2.pdf The committee then returned the current text to the convention, commenting, "In response to widespread citizen and delegate interest in preserving our ghost towns, as well as our scenic, archaeologic, scientific, cultural, and recreational areas, sites, and objects your committee proposes this self-explanatory section. The committee felt that such a section was appropriate in an article providing for protection of our total environment for this and future generations." Id. at p. 558

Ratification