Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

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Glimpses of our National Monuments

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  • 6 OUR NATIONAL MONUMENTS were built up. The cinder cones represented by Mount Capulin were the last to be formed and result from the last relatively feeble effort of the dying forces. The national monument created by presidential proclamation August 9,1916, covers an area of 680.37 acres. Its principal exhibit, Capulin Mountain, is one of the striking features of this region of unique and attractive scenery. It is 6 miles southwest of Folsom, N. Mex., on the Colorado Southern Railroad, and 3 miles north of the town of Dedman on a branch line of the Santa Fe System. The Colorado-to-Gulf Highway passes south of the monument through Des Moines and Capulin Station, and another road passes east of the monument through Des Moines and Folsom. Autos can be driven to the base of the mountain over the level plain. When an improved highway is provided to the monument its popularity will greatly increase. Homer J. Farr, the custodian of the monument, lives at the town of Capulin. CARLSBAD CAVE NATIONAL MONUMENT The Guadalupe Mountains, in southeastern New Mexico, have been carved by erosion from an uplifting mass of limestone, which disappears laterally under red shale containing gypsum and rock salt, into a series of sharp ridges and steep-walled gorges of unusual beauty. In the process of erosion the waters have formed many large caverns by dissolving the thick beds of limestone, gypsum, and rock salt embedded in the shale. One of them, Carlsbad Cave, which was known locally for many years, was visited by Dr. "Willis T. Lee, of the United States Geological Survey, in 1922, who found that it possessed unusual qualities, and this discovery was announced to the world through the National Geographic Society. The result of the explorations made by Doctor Lee and other Government officials was that the greater portion of the cavern, covering 719.22 acres, was included in the Carlsbad Cave National Monument, created by presidential proclamation dated October 25, 1923. Formerly this cave was known as " Bat Cave," because of the thousands of bats that inhabit it. It is said that at dusk each evening these little mammals come out through a large natural opening, at times in such numbers that they look like smoke from a chimney, and for three hours pour forth in a steady stream; then in the early morning they return and with incredible swiftness fold their wings in midair and dart into the opening. Although several miles of underground passages have been explored, there are still many portions of Carlsbad Cave yet unknown; and its size is a matter of conjecture, although the National Geo-
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Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).