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Carlsbad Caverns National Park located in the Chihuahuan Desert of southern New Mexico. Carlsbad Caverns National Park offers various recreational activities, such as camping, hiking, and enjoying the outdoor scenery. Carlsbad Caverns National Park features more than 100 caves. Carlsbad Cavern is one of over 300 limestone caves in a fossil reef laid down by an inland sea from around 265 million years ago.

In 1923, President Calvin Coolidge signed a proclamation establishing the Carlsbad Cave Monument. In 1978, President Jimmy Carter established the Carlsbad Cavern Wilderness as part of the National Parks and Recreation Act.

In 1923, President Calvin Coolidge signed a proclamation establishing the Carlsbad Cave Monument. In 1978, President Jimmy Carter established the Carlsbad Cavern Wilderness as part of the National Parks and Recreation Act.
Carlsbad Caverns National Park located in the Chihuahuan Desert of southern New Mexico. Carlsbad Caverns National Park features more than 100 caves. The Natural Entrance is a popular path into the namesake Carlsbad Cavern. Stalactites cling to the roof of the Big Room, a huge underground chamber in the cavern of Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Rattlesnake Springs, a desert wetland, attracts reptiles and hundreds of bird species to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Carlsbad Caverns National Park offers various recreational activities, such as camping, hiking, and enjoying the outdoor scenery.

Carlsbad Cavern is one of over 300 limestone caves in a fossil reef laid down by an inland sea from around 265 million years ago. American Indians lived in the Guadalupe Mountains twelve-to-fourteen thousand years ago. Some of their cooking ring sites and pictographs have been found within the present day boundaries of the Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Spanish explorers were passing through present-day west Texas and southeastern New Mexico by the 1500s.

Spain claimed the southwest until 1821, when Mexico revolted and then claimed independence. Mexico, fighting the westward expansionist United States in the late 1840s, lost the southwest to the U.S. New Mexico Territory was created in 1850 in which for the next 30 years the cultural conflict between American Indians and the U.S. government continued. Eddy, New Mexico, (now known as Carlsbad) was established in 1888 and New Mexico became a state in 1912. Carlsbad Caverns National Park was first designated a National Monument in 1923. It was then re-designated as a National Park on May 14th, 1930. Carlsbad Caverns was also designated a World Heritage Site in 1995.
National Park Service. 2018. History and Culture. Website. https://www.nps.gov/cave/learn/historyculture/index.htm

National Park. 2018. Welcome to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Website. https://www.national-park.com/welcome-to-carlsbad-caverns-national-park/