Congressman Juan Ciscomani and Senator Mark Kelly partnered on a bill to upgrade the Chiricahua National Monument to a national park.

Republican House members and Democratic senators introduced related legislation earlier this month to boost the status of about 12,000 acres of land. monument About 120 miles southeast of Tucson.

Senator Kirsten Cinema co-sponsored the Senate version of the Chiricahua National Parks Act.

This area of ​​Cochise County is home to narrow rock formations called hoodoos, which attract visitors from all over the world. The gray chimney-like rhyolite formations are the eroded remnants of a volcanic eruption 27 million years ago that buried the area under about 2,000 feet of ash. The Chiricahua Apache Indians called it “the land where rocks stand”.

“These unique formations draw visitors from all over the country and around the world to our state. This tourism is an important part of our local economy,” Ciscomani said in a statement. With this law, Chiricahua will finally get the designation they deserve.

The park and the existing wilderness designated within it will also continue to protect one of Arizona’s most biodiverse sky islands.

“A bipartisan bill designating Chiricahua National Monument as a national park would further promote conservation, promote tourism, and create economic opportunities in southern Arizona,” Kelly said.

If approved, Chiricahua will become Arizona’s fourth national park, after the Grand Canyon, Petrified Forest and Saguaro.

This is not the first time such legislation has been introduced. Since early 2015, grassroots campaigns have lobbied for a change of status.

Then rep. Martha McSally she introduced a bill to upgrade the monument to a park in 2016, but the bill did not move forward. She tried again as a senator in 2019, but with the same result.

Kelly and Cinema finally passed the bill unanimously in the Senate in 2022, but the bill stalled in the House, much like lawmakers’ related bills at the time. Ann Kirkpatrick.

Kirkpatrick’s version contained specific language prohibiting future mining in the park. It also mandates consultation with relevant Native American tribes to protect the park’s cultural and religious sites so that members of those tribes collect plants there for non-commercial religious or cultural use. I have allowed it.

President Calvin Coolidge established the Chiricahua National Monument in 1924 by decree. Ten years later, the Civil Protection Corps began improving roads and building trails and structures.

Today, the memorial has 25 campgrounds and 17 miles of hiking trails.

It’s unclear if the status upgrade will increase budgets and personnel for the area already managed by the National Park Service.

But some communities near the monument are struggling and welcome the tourism boost the change in status could bring. , Huachuca City all support the new law.

Cochise County Supervisor Anne English, a member of Ciscomani’s Citizens Advisory Board, said: “Adding this designation at no additional cost will put it on a park enthusiast’s ‘to do list’ and will be a much-needed economic boon to the area.” ”