FUN WITH MAPS ISSUE 2026-080

By Steve Kovacs (Introduction by Chuck Gibson)

LOVELAND, OH (May 14, 2026) – This edition of Fun with Maps takes us into a cave system with a very long history despite being discovered by a local teen less than 200 years ago.   

Dark Cave

The Carlsbad Caverns earned National Park title on May 14, 1930.

The cave system is in southeast New Mexico.  The first documented exploration was in 1898 by a local teenager using a homemade wire ladder and a lantern.  He named some of the most prominent features, including the Big Room (about 4000 by 620 feet and up to 250 feet tall), the Bat Room named for the night creatures, etc.

The caverns trace their origins to about 250 million years ago when the area was on the shores of an inland sea.   Evaporation followed by sedimentation created the overall structure, and the actual cave system was eventually carved over millennia by slightly acidic water.

The caverns were named for the nearby town, Carlsbad, which in turn was named for the then German town of Karlsbad.  Karlsbad now is in Czechia and is called Karlovy Vary.

Cram created this map of the New Mexico Territory in 1894.

Steve Kovacs and his wife Theresa reside in Loveland, Ohio where they raised their two children. He is a passionate collector of antique maps. Visit his antique map boutique world-on-paper online. Watch for his daily feature Fun with Maps here on Loveland Beacon.