Y'all realize, naturally, that it was a Texan who who is credited with having discovered Carlsbad Caverns. The caverns were unknown to the world at large when, in 1898, while riding his horse through the Chihuahuan Desert looking for stray cattle  with a fence mending crew, a 15-year-old cowboy named Jim White saw a plume of bats rising from the desert hills.  From a distance it appeared to be a volcano, or a whirlwind but did not behave quite like either.  He tied his horse to a nearby tree and worked his way through the brush to the edge of a large opening in the ground. Jim described the moment by saying, "I found myself gazing into the biggest and blackest hole I had ever seen, out of which the bats seemed literally to boil."

Yup. James was born in rural Mason county, Texas. The whole story of the discovery is very interesting ---- particularly the fact that at first people didn't believe him.