Caverns Historic District: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Carlsbad Caverns National Park, National Park Service
Colby C and Foster L. 2011. Caverns Historic District: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Carlsbad Caverns National Park, National Park Service. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 850217. NPS Intermountain Regional Office. Intermountain Regional Office/CLI Database
The Carlsbad Caverns Historic District landscape is located at the mouth of Carlsbad Caverns, about 20 miles directly southwest (or 27 miles by road) from Carlsbad, New Mexico. Situated high in the hills of the Capitan Formation, the historic district is a component of the Carlsbad Caverns National Park in the southeast corner of New Mexico. The area was identified as the Carlsbad Cave National Monument in 1923, and in 1930 it was redesignated as the Carlsbad Caverns National Park. The recommended boundary for the cultural landscape aligns with the proposed boundary for the archeological district, both of which would expand the existing National Register boundary established in 1988. The National Register Historic District boundary is oriented around the early National Park Service (NPS) and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) structures, added between 1929 and 1942. The proposed revised boundary would incorporate these structures with other features of the cultural landscape, expanded to include the existing Historic District, the entrance road, archeological sites, the quarry in the northeast corner, the Visitor Center, and the historic parking area. The Carlsbad Caverns Historic District landscape period of significance is 1907-1942, beginning with historic mining activity in the caverns of the early 20th century and including the CCC-era of park development and architecture. During the New Deal era, many parks adopted an approach known as Rustic Design in an effort to build in a manner that echoed the natural environment in form and materials. This is seen at Carlsbad Caverns in the employment of local limestone and regional architectural styles. The park landscape reflects early thinking that led to the movement towards a master plan, incorporating overall goals and development limits into the idea of thoughtful landscape design. The earliest structures are products of CCC labor at the park, the result of national relief work programs established in the 1930s. The landscape is also significant for its association with NPS landscape architects and planners, including Thomas Boles, Frank Kittridge, Thomas Vint, Ken Saunders, and Harvey Cornell. Most of the buildings exhibit a strong visual cohesiveness, even as they help to demonstrate the evolution and varience of building styles in the region. The Mission 66 structures mark the first major departure from a rustic style to more modern and utilitarian construction at the park. These are not particularly outstanding examples of that period of development and are considered non-contributing in the district. All of the buildings are closely related to the character of the natural terrain that surrounds the district.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Colby, Catherine; Foster, Lance
- Date of Issue
- 2011-02-07
- Publisher
- NPS Intermountain Regional Office
- Units
- CAVE , IMR
- Keywords
- A.V. Van Dun, Ampitheater, Apache, Archeological District, Architecture, Capitan Formation, Carlsbad, CCC, Civilian Conservation Corps, Comprehensive planning, Designed Landscape, Eddy County, Ethan Carr, Extractive Facility, Frank Kittridge, Guadalupe Mountains, Harvey Cornell, Historic Parking Area, historic site, Industry, Ken Saunders, Landscape architecture, Limestone, Master Plan, Mining, Mission 66, Native American, New Deal, New Nexico, park development, Plains, Pueblo, Pueblo Revival, quarry, Reef, Regionalism, Rustic style, Territorial Revival, Texas, The 1930s: Era of Public Works, Thomas Boles, Thomas Vint, Visitor Center, Works Progress Administration, WPA