Cavers broke through a New Mexico pit to uncover 145 miles of Lechuguilla Cave

Photo: A map of Lechuguilla Cave in July 2019Photo credit: NPSFor decades, Lechuguilla Cave was just a footnote in New Mexico’s Guadalupe Mountains: a 90-foot entrance pit leading to 400 feet of dry, dead-end passages that had once been mined for bat guano. But in the 1950s, cavers began noticing something strange: wind roaring up from the rubble-choked floor, hinting at hidden passages below. Acting on that hunch, a team of Colorado cavers obtained permission from the National Park Service and began digging in 1984. On May 26, 1986, they broke through into vast walking passages, launching one of the most significant cave discoveries in modern history. This article draws on the National Park Service’s official history of Lechuguilla Cave.From a forgotten pit to a world-class caveBefore 198