The Amazing Discovery Story (part 6 of 6)

For Jim White, who discovered the cave in 1898 at age 16 while herding cattle in the Chihuahuan Desert, recognition finally arrived in the early 1920s when photographer Ray V. Davis took its first interior photographs. The photos sparked a National Geographic expedition led by Dr. Willis T. Lee, which confirmed the cave’s immense scale. Within months of the formal survey, President Calvin Coolidge designated it a National Monument in 1923, and it officially became Carlsbad Caverns National Park in 1930. Jim White was appointed the park’s first Chief Ranger (Carlsbad, New Mexico).

≡Canon R5/RF24-240 HDR 24mm f/4 1/10sec iso-8000