Escalante National Monument was proposed by Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes in the 1930s as a unit of the U.S. National Park Service in the canyonlands of south central Utah. Centering on the canyons of the Escalante River, the proposed monument encompassed portions of present-day Canyonlands and Capitol Reef national parks, Natural Bridges and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.^[1] The proposed national monument was to encompass about 4,500,000 acres (1,800,000 ha). The Second World War interrupted Ickes initiative, which had encountered resistance from Utah politicians.^[2][3][4]

The scheme was partially fulfilled with the establishment of Capitol Reef National Monument under the Antiquities Act in 1937 and Canyonlands National Park by act of Congress in 1964,^[1] and expanded with the proclamation of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument by the Clinton Administration in 1996. Later proposals by the National Parks Conservation Association in the 1980s,^[3] former Utah Congressman Wayne Owens in the 1990s,^[1] and the Greater Canyonlands Coalition in the 2010s revived the idea, encountering renewed opposition from the Utah congressional delegation.^[5]

On December 28, 2016 President Barack Obama proclaimed the 1.35 million acre Bears Ears National Monument to protect Bureau of Land Management public lands and part of the Manti-La Sal National Forest south and east of Canyonlands National Park. This area was part of the 1936 proposed national monument.