The Great Outsiders: Carlsbad Caverns Visitor Center
The visitor center in the desert hiding a deep, dark secret.
Welcome to the second entry in a monthly series sharing work from my ongoing project; The Great Outsiders, which explores the forgotten modernist architecture of the US National Parks. Each month, I’ll be sharing stories and images from a location featured in the project. This month is a visit to the high desert of New Mexico and the Carlsbad Caverns visitor center.
The visitor center at Carlsbad Caverns National Park was completed in 1959 by Cecil Doty and the WDOC. The building sits high in the Guadalupe mountain range of southeastern New Mexico, and acts as the entrance to the largest accessible cave system in North America.
I visited Carlsbad in November of 2023, making the 300 mile drive from Albuquerque (via a disappointing pit stop in Roswell) and staying in nearby Whites City for a few days. On a side note, I’ll never not be amused by tiny American towns in the middle of nowhere declaring themselves as cities. This place had one restaurant, a general store and a laundromat - definitely not a city in my book!
I was struck by the relatively simple geometry of the visitor center, appearing as a collection of very large concrete boxes arranged into a staggered formation on the top of a mountain. The building appeared to resemble a factory or power station more than a visitor center with the central lift shaft looking as though it could house a reactor or generator.
That’s right, I said lift shaft! As well as being able to hike the footpaths down into Carlsbad Caverns, visitors can take an elevator 600ft down into the enormous cave system. What I found most incredible about this was the fact that the elevators look just like the kind you’d find in an NYC apartment building. I was expecting to be packed into some kind of bare-bones cage contraption like a miner, but thanks to some pretty incredible engineering, I was able to ride up to the surface (I walked down, thankyouverymuch) in absolute comfort.
The fun didn’t stop there either, because at the bottom of the lift, inside an actual cave system was basically a whole new subterranean visitor center, complete with a gift shop and canteen serving hot food!
Back above ground I continued to explore the visitor center, photographing its simple form as the light moved across it through the day. I found the center to be an interesting contradiction in the landscape. The beige tones of the walls do a good job of blending into the desert color palette, yet the boxy form of its construction really contrasts agains the organic forms that surround it. To me, it’s a perfect representation of a Mission 66 building - appearing to belong and not belong in its surroundings simultaneously.
Thank you for reading and I’d love to hear what you think about this structure and Mission 66 in general - let me know in the comments.
Additionally, if you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, please consider telling your friends and/or sharing it on your socials. Any further attention I can bring to this fascinating slice of post-war history is greatly appreciated!
Next time, we’ll be heading to the east coast, exploring a structure that whilst thoroughly modern, stays true to it’s New England roots. See you then!
For those of you too impatient to wait for next month’s installment, you can skip ahead and take a look at the images of all the locations I’ve documented to date, over on my website.
Great set of photos Owen! The contrast between the modernist architectural and the cave walls is indeed surreal!
As you know by now Owen, I’m loving this series and this part is no exception. Thanks for sharing.