Jim White: Discovery, Business, and Bats
Most of the initial exploration of the Carlsbad Caverns were done by a teenage boy named Jim White, who discovered the caverns while he was riding through the Chihuahuan Desert in search of stray cattle. He saw a plume of bats (native to the cave system) rising from the hills. He tied up his horse and ventured closer, finding a huge black opening in the earth. He later described this event by saying, “I found myself gazing into the biggest and blackest hole I had ever seen, out of which the bats seemed literally to boil.” An inscription was discovered in the caves in the 1980s that read J.White 1898, lending credibility to the story that Mr. White conveyed.
Jim white eventually returned to the area with the help of a 15 year-old Mexican boy (whose name has been lost to history) and explored much of the cave system with homemade torches and a ball of string to find their way back. Eventually Mr. White turned his discovery into a profitable business venture, mining the guano produced by the bats and selling it as fertilizer. He used a large iron bucket with a gas-powered winch to haul up tons of guano, a fact he left out when using the same bucket to transport hundreds of tourists into and out of the caverns for a small fee. Despite the rather comical nature of his business, Jim managed to build two houses, both practically on top of the cavern, and provide for his wife and family with the profits he made from fertilizer and tourism.
Carlsbad National Park was initially established as a National Monument on October 25th, 1923, under President Calvin Coolidge.
The Monument was introduced at the beginning of his term in office after having taken over from his predecessor, President Warren G. Harding, died of an apparent heart attack in August of the same year.
Sadly, Mr. White died in 1946 at the age of 63 of coronary thrombosis and was buried next to his wife, Fannie, in Carlsbad Municipal Cemetery. Much of the early accounts of Jim’s life and discovery come from a pamphlet that Jim self-published called “Jim White’s Own Story”, used in Mr. White’s cave-exploring tourist business. A bronze statue of Jim White on his wired ladder can be viewed at the National Cave and Karst Research Institute in Carslbad, New Mexico.
Today, you can visit Carlsbad Caverns National Park year-round and walk the winding path through limestone formations, touring through its unique features like the Hall of the White Giant, the Bifrost Room, The Mystery Room, and Spirit World. One of the more unique things about the Carlsbad Caverns is that this National Park visit is mostly an ‘indoor’ experience, allowing for a truly surreal and memorable visit.