Carlsbad Caverns National Park
Carlsbad Caverns National Park is in the Guadalupe Mountains in
southeastern New Mexico. The primary attraction of the park for
most visitors is the show cave, Carlsbad Caverns. Visitors to
the cave can hike in on their own via the natural entrance, or
take the elevator directly to the Underground Lunchroom some 750
feet below.
The park has two entries on the National Register of Historic
Places: The Caverns Historic District and the Rattlesnake
Springs Historic District. Approximately two thirds of the park
has been set aside as a wilderness area, helping to ensure no
future changes will be made to the habitat.
The park entrance is located on US Highway 62/180 approximately
18 miles southwest of Carlsbad, New Mexico. The park
participates in the Junior Ranger Program. Carlsbad Caverns
includes a large cave chamber, the Big Room, a natural limestone
chamber which is almost 4,000 feet long, 625 feet wide, and 350
feet high at the highest point. It is the third largest chamber
in North America and the seventh largest in the world.
Carlsbad Cavern History
Carlsbad Cavern is one of over 300 limestone caves in a
fossil reef laid down by an inland sea 250 to 280 million
years ago. Twelve to fourteen thousand years ago, American
Indians lived in the Guadalupe Mountains; some of their
cooking ring sites and pictographs have been found within
the present day boundaries of the park. By the 1500s,
Spanish explorers were passing through present-day west
Texas and southeastern New Mexico. Spain claimed the
southwest until 1821 when Mexico revolted against her and
claimed independence. Mexico, fighting the westward
expansionist United States in the late 1840s, lost the
southwest to the US. In 1850, New Mexico Territory was
created, and for the next 30 years the cultural conflict
between American Indians and the US government continued.
Eddy, New Mexico, the future Carlsbad, was established in
1888 and New Mexico became a state in 1912.
Before becoming a national park, a young adventurer, Jim
White explored the caverns with his homemade wire ladder.
When he grew older, most people did not even believe such
caves existed. He gave many of the rooms their names,
including the Big Room, New Mexico Room, King's Palace,
Queen's Chamber, Papoose Room, and Green Lake Room. He also
named many of the cave's more prominent formations, such as
the Totem Pole, Witch's Finger, Giant Dome, Bottomless Pit,
Fairyland, Iceberg Rock, Temple of the Sun, and Rock of
Ages.
