18 Fascinating Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Carlsbad Caverns In New Mexico
You probably know that Carlsbad Caverns is a breathtakingly beautiful place. It’s New Mexico’s only national park and has been designated a World Heritage Site. But did you know these 18 facts about the most enchanting place in the Land of Enchantment?
1. The land that forms Carlsbad Caverns was once part of an ancient underwater reef called Capitan Reef. Marine fossils have been found in the rock.
4. We know, from pictographs in the area, that Native Americans lived on this land starting from 12-14,000 years ago. It is believed that they used the caves near the surface long before they were “discovered.”
(This photo shows a pictograph, not the ones in Carlsbad Caverns National Park.)
5. In the 1880s, people didn’t go into the caves to admire them. Instead, they were there to mine for bat poop! Apparently, guano is a powerful fertilizer.
6. Some people are under the impression that James (Jim) Larkin White was a cowboy who stumbled upon the caves by chance. He was actually a guano miner who explored the far reaches of the caves in his down time. It is up for debate who first found the entrance to Carlsbad Caverns.
15. In 1959, Carlsbad Caverns served as a location for the movie “Journey to the Center of the Earth.” Filming took place in the Kings Palace and the Boneyard.
16. Anyone who has yet to visit the park is probably unaware that there is an underground lunchroom. Nowadays it mostly just sells sandwiches but, back in the days before people considered the impact on the underground ecosystem, it sold heartier meals - and cigars!
18. Some of the guided tours through the caverns are a real adventure, requiring participants to crawl through the caves. (Don’t worry, there are plenty of tamer options as well.)
