Chamizal National Memorial

NPS Unit Count: 46

Hey there fellow Adventurers! I am going to start a new part of the blog. I am laser focused on visiting all of the “national parks” (63 and counting as of 2021). I have maintained that I will not go out of my way for the other 360 NPS units and I still will not. I am not made of money! However, I do run across them and if they are near I am going to stop. They will probably mostly be quick visits and that’s it, but I am calling myself the Parks Adventurer, so I guess I better get them when I can and jot down my thoughts about them as well. (This also means I might be playing catch up, again, on my posts!)

I recently flew into El Paso to visit White Sands, Guadalupe Mountains, and Carlsbad Caverns. In my research before the trip I knew that Chamizal National Memorial was in El Paso but I had never heard of it and was totally ignorant of the events it was established to commemorate. It was a short visit, and to be honest, I have spent much more time at other non “national park” NPS units than this one, but as I have decided to start chronicling these as well, here we are! Anyway, being in El Paso, and this park has a view of the fence, there is some interesting history with Mexico here.

Growing up in southwest Indiana, I was intrigued as a youngster by why it was that when going to Kentucky from my home city you actually entered Kentucky BEFORE getting to the Ohio River, which is generally the border between the two states. However, there is enough land in Kentucky before the bridges that there is a horse track and a gas station despite being north of the river. The reason for this is because rivers do not stay on their course! I had never thought of the ramifications of this for international borders but this same thing is what led to the creation of Chamizal. The Rio Grande changed course between El Paso and Juarez and Chamizal commemorates the peaceful land exchange that the two nations engaged in to settle the issue.

I am not doing ratings and final thoughts on NPS units. The reason being that for me, I am more interested in amazing outdoor and natural wonders and an awful lot of the other NPS units are more about history and other things, which is cool, but not what I am really looking for. Also, for me, they will be quick visits, so I may or may not be getting a “full” experience of those parks.