New Mexico: Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks to become national monument

Billy the Kid’s hideout and a moon-like crater that served as the training ground for Apollo missions are among the almost half a million acres in southern New Mexico that will become America’s newest national monument on Wednesday.

President Obama will use executive authority to designate Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument near the city of Las Cruces. It features rugged mountain peaks, canyons and rock spires as well as petroglyphs and other archaeological sites.

The White House made the announcement Monday and says the designation could generate more than $7.4 million annually, according to reports. The area is considered the crown jewel of the southern Rockies and contains a string of mountain ranges: Organ, Dona Ana, Sierras de Las Uvas, Robledo and Greater Potrillo.

There are many historic sites within the new monument too, including petroglyphs from three Native American cultures. In the 19th century, Billy the Kid hid out at Outlaw Rock in the Robledo Mountains. And Geronimo took cover in one of the many caves in the same mountains while trying to elude the cavalry.

At the eastern end of the Potrillo Mountains, the volcanic crater known as the Kilbourne Hole provided the perfect training landscape for some of the Apollo moon missions in the late 1960s and early ‘70s.

The president is invoking the Antiquities Act in creating the new monument, which is the largest such designation made during his term. It’s the 11th time he has protected national lands by creating a national monument.

The president in March added 1,665 onshore acres called the Point Arena-Stornetta Public Lands to the California Coastal National Monument, which runs the length of the state.