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The Fort Stanton Cave is an extensive yet easily navigable cave system in southern New Mexico, right below the Fort Stanton Historic Site. Home to a variety of cave-dwelling species like the Townsend's big-eared bat, it is most well-known for the Snowy River formation, a blanket of white calcite on the cave floor that makes up one of the largest single cave formations in the world at nearly 11 miles long!

Concerns about White-Nose Syndrome (a fungal disease that's highly deadly to bat colonies) have kept the cave closed to recreational exploration in recent years but PLIA, in conjunction with the Bureau of Land Management and the Fort Stanton Cave Study Project, were able to bring students from local schools on an educational caving expedition. To prepare students to explore the cave safely and responsibly, PLIA collaborated with the Fort Stanton Cave Study Project to develop the existing Caver Quest program into an interactive game for Google Chromebooks. Students ventured through a 3-D model of the cave, learning a variety of subjects from cave etiquette to microbiology. To encapsulate their Caver Quest trek, students tested their knowledge in preparation for the journey to the cave.

The late 1800s completely rocked the social and political structure of New Mexico. Once a colony at the furthest reaches of Spain's empire, the people were thrust into the industrial age when the United States assumed control of the region. One of the first acts of the new territory was constructing forts all along the Rio Grande; and in the midst of the Jornada del Muerto (dead man's journey), a stretch of desolate desert through south-central New Mexico, came Fort Craig.

The Indian Wars saw several military campaigns based out of Fort Craig, while the Civil War brought the front lines to New Mexico with the Battle of Valverde, a bloody conflict between Union and Confederate forces that set the stage for the looming defeat of Southern forces at Glorieta Pass and their eventual retreat from the West. The fort was also a temporary base during the campaigns of the Buffalo Soldiers, a group of all-black regiments that fought in conflicts all over the Western frontier.

With the aid of historians, archaeologists, and the technology available, PLIA and the Bureau of Land Management have teamed up to bring these stories to life in an interactive display for the Fort Craig Visitor Center. Visitors will hear the stories of soldiers and workers in their own words, see the ruined fort restored to its heyday using 3-D imaging, and explore the stories of individuals that were once lost to time.

In phase two of the project, the exhibit is enhanced with detailed videos detailing the connections from the figures at Fort Craig and the Battle of Valverde to the present day through genealogy and local history.

Developed by PLIA in partnership with the Bureau of Land Management, Conservation Corps New Mexico, the Whiptail Trails Club aims to make the outdoors more accessible to New Mexico's middle school students. The program serves as an introduction to the scientific, cultural, and recreational opportunities that can all be enjoyed on our public lands. Participating classes get lessons on agencies like the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management and field trips to the nearby lands they manage. With a focus on the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) fields, the goal is to inspire curiosity about what public lands are for and how to use them responsibly.

PLIA also hosted a week-long camp in the summer of 2022-2024 for nearly a dozen girls to experience public lands and develop outdoor skills. Travelling to sites like National Forests and Monuments, museums, and historic sites, the girls got valuable lessons in camping and first-aid skills, biology and natural history, and potential careers on public lands. With a successful program for several years thanks to contributions from the New Mexico Outdoor Equity Fund as well as a few generous individuals and businesses, other areas of New Mexico have shown interest in hosting similar programs of their own.

With your help, we can offer this program to even more schools across New Mexico. Even a small contribution can help us develop lesson plans and coordinate trips focused on more of our remarkable public lands and inspire future generations to pursue work or leisure outdoors.

Your contribution would allow us to keep offering this program in Southern New Mexico, and expand into the Cibola National Forest near Albuquerque!