Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 114 Part 4.djvu/462

 114 STAT. 2524 PUBLIC LAW 106-529—NOV. 22, 2000 Public Law 106-529 106th Congress An Act Nov. 22, 2000 [S. 2485] Saint Croix Island Heritage Act 16 USC 450hh note. 16 USC 450hh note. To direct the Secretary of the Interior to provide assistance in planning and constructing a regional heritage center in Calais, Maine. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the "Saint Croix Island Heritage Act". SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES. (a) FINDINGS. — Congress finds that— (1) Saint Croix Island is located in the Saint Croix River, a river that is the boundary between the State of Maine and Canada; (2) the Island is the only international historic site in the National Park System; (3) in 1604, French nobleman Pierre Dugua Sieur de Mons, accompanied by a courageous group of adventurers that included Samuel Champlain, landed on the Island and began the construction of a settlement; (4) the French settlement on the Island in 1604 and 1605 was the initial site of the first permanent settlement in the New World, predating the English settlement of 1607 at Jamestown, Virginia; (5) many people view the expedition that settled on the Island in 1604 as the beginning of the Acadian culture in North America; (6) in October, 1998, the National Park Service completed a general management plan to manage and interpret the Saint Croix Island International Historic Site; (7) the plan addresses a variety of management alternatives, and concludes that the best management strategy entails developing an interpretive trail and ranger station at Red Beach, Maine, and a regional heritage center in downtown Calais, Maine, in cooperation with Federal, State, and local agencies; (8) a 1982 memorandum of understanding, signed by the Department of the Interior and the Canadian Department for the Environment, outlines a cooperative program to commemorate the international heritage of the Saint Croix Island site and specifically to prepare for the 400th anniversary of the settlement in 2004; and

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