🇺🇸 WEEKLY AMERICAN HERITAGE: Carlsbad Caverns National Park

(Explore the history and landscape of the United States as we celebrate the 250th anniversary of American Independence. Get out your atlas and almanac and follow along!)

New Mexico is our homeschool state-of-the-week, so why not spend a few minutes today with your students learning about one of New Mexico’s most important natural and historical places: Carlsbad Caverns National Park, which protects and interprets one of the largest natural cave systems in the world.

“Carlsbad Caverns National Park is a national park of the United States in the Guadalupe Mountains of southeastern New Mexico. Visitors can hike in on their own via the natural entrance or take an elevator from the visitor center.”

The park entrance is located on US Highway 62/180, approximately 18 miles southwest of Carlsbad, New Mexico. 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 that no future changes will be made to the habitat.

Carlsbad Caverns includes a large limestone chamber, named simply the Big Room, which is almost 4,000 ft long, 625 ft wide, and 255 ft high at its highest point. The Big Room is the largest chamber in North America and the 32nd largest in the world.

Carlsbad Caverns was established as a national park in 1930 and was recognized as a World Heritage Site in 1995. According to the online publication The Travel, it is renowned globally for being “one of the most accessible and best-preserved cave complexes in the world.” (wikipedia.org)

You can find a wealth of additional information about this park’s history, landscape, location(s), and visitor facilities on the webpage for Carlsbad Caverns National Park from the National Park Service, and also on the park’s page on Wikipedia.

Explore America’s National Parks, National Historical Parks, National Historic Sites, National Monuments, and more via Wikipedia and via the U.S. National Park Service’s website today.

What American treasures are you and your students exploring in your homeschool this Hercules Term? 🇺🇸

❡ The great globe itself: This is one of our regular Homeschool Geography posts featuring important natural and historical sites in the United States. Print your own copy of our River Houses American Heritage Calendar and follow along with us, and add your name to our weekly mailing list to get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 🌎

❡ We set to-day a votive stone: If you want a great long-term history and geography project for your homeschool, explore the Historical Marker Database online (hmdb.org) and make a plan to find all the markers that are listed in your local area. Add any new ones you know of that are missing, and add new photos or descriptions for the ones already included. Your students will gain a better appreciation for your local community and will learn a wealth of new information about history and geography. 🏛️

❡ Print this little lesson: Down at the bottom of this post you’ll find a special “Print” button that will let you create a neat and easy-to-read copy of this little lesson, and it will even let you edit and delete sections you don’t want or need (such as individual images or footnotes). Give it a try today! 🖨️

❡ Books in the running brooks: You can always turn to your River Houses atlas and almanac for more information about any of our homeschool states-of-the-week. The almanac has detailed profiles of all the U.S. states and territories, and the endpapers of the atlas are indexes that will show you where all of the individual national and regional maps may be found. 📚

❡ Homeschool calendars: We have a whole collection of free, printable, educational homeschool calendars and planners available on our main River Houses calendar page. They will help you create a light and easy structure for your homeschool year. Give them a try today! 🗓️

❡ Support our work: If you enjoy our educational materials, please support us by starting your regular Amazon shopping from our very own homeschool teaching supplies page. When you click through from our page, any purchase you make earns us a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for helping us to keep going and growing! 🛒