Glenwood Caverns and Iron Mountain Hot Springs have together been designated as a National Natural Landmark by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, a Wednesday news release states.

The region’s iconic fixtures are owned by Steven and Jeanne Beckley. 

“Glenwood’s caverns and hot springs are iconic Colorado treasures,” U.S. Senator Michael Bennet said in the release. “I am pleased to see them recognized by Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland as a National Natural Landmark and appreciate the Beckleys’ ongoing efforts to preserve these valuable resources for future generations.”   

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The designation, announced on Dec. 13, cited the millions of years of geologic history in the location and the unique cave ecosystems that are present, according to the announcement from Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park and Iron Mountain Hot Springs. 

“We’re super excited, it’s been a lot of years in the making,” Steven Beckley told the Post Independent. “It’s quite the honor. It’s amazing that they took this geologic wonder of the hot springs and the caverns and how they were all formed and the unique life forms that are in it, and identified it as a very special place.” 

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The Beckleys first purchased the property in 1999 after 16 years of trying to buy it from its previous owners. 

“Why would we go through all this trouble to get this designation if it doesn’t mean anything? But, it just means a lot for us because when I first fell in love with the cave, I started trying to do something,” Steven Beckley said. “We’ve gone to great lengths to make sure we’re protecting that cave and being stewards. We put in airtight doors and we’ve monitored the humidity and the temperature in the cave for the last 25 years.”

For the Beckleys, applying for the designation was the next step in their conservation efforts. 

“We knew that they’d done some cases in the past, so we put an application in,” Steven Beckley said. “We applied because we knew it was a special place and we thought it should be registered nationally for its uniqueness.” 

The National Natural Landmarks (NNL) Program was created in 1962 to identify, recognize and support the conservation of sites that represent the natural heritage of the U.S., especially those with outstanding examples of biological or geological features, according to the release. Landmark sites are deemed nationally significant based on their outstanding condition, illustrative character, rarity, diversity and value to science and education.   

According to a letter addressed to Steven and Jeanne Beckley from the U.S. Department of Interior, Glenwood Caverns and Iron Mountain Hot Springs were specifically picked for this designation because it was discovered that the downcutting of the Colorado River into the Leadville Limestone created unique ecosystems within Iron Mountain. 

“Both the Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park caves and Iron Mountain Hot Springs are habitats for species adapted to live in the extreme environments of the hot springs and the low-nutrient conditions of the caves, including eight native troglobites (fully cave-adapted species) and a diversity of microbes including 38 unique types of bacteria,” the release states. 

Additionally, the polygenetic suite of hypogene karst processes identified within these landmarks have been operational from the inception of Glenwood Caverns during the geological pseudo-period known as the Pliocene-Pleistocene epochs, which began about 2.5 million years ago, according to the letter from the U.S. Department of Interior. 

Steven Beckley said he and his wife applied for the NNL designation over 10 years ago, though they never expected the process would take as long as it did. Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park General Manager Nancy Heard has been working for the Beckley’s for over 15 years, and Steven Beckley recalled the designation being one of her responsibilities when she first took the job. 

“They went through a whole process of review through several doctors and geologists…” Beckley said. “… But it just took a lot of years for the experts to go through all the processes and to get it passed.” 

Hanging Lake was another landmark in Garfield County to receive an NNL designation in 2011.

Steven Beckley said that while he doesn’t think the NNL designation will have an impact on visitation, he hopes it will help to protect the surrounding land from Rocky Mountain Industrials’ expansion proposal, which would expand the existing Transfer Trail limestone quarry from 20 acres to an open pit mine of 321 acres. 

“There actually are other caves on quarry property that also have significance, so (I’m hoping) that we will be cautious before we start just throwing stuff like that through quarry operations,” Steven Beckley said. “I hope this will have an impact on making sure that the future quarry activities are, maybe not stopped, but that they’re at least thoughtfully done, so they don’t impact potential treasures. Once they’re destroyed, you’ll never get it back.” 

More so than being worried about caves being destroyed by the expansion, the owner’s main concern had more to do with the hot springs. 

“The limestone that the caves are in is the same aquifer that supplies the water to the hot springs, so we’re more concerned at this time about the quarry impacting the recharging of the hot springs aquifer, and impacting the hot springs … and the flows to those to those facilities,” Steven Beckley said. 

Damage to the underground cave network is also a big concern for the Glenwood Springs Citizens’ Alliance, the community group opposing the limestone mine expansion proposal.

“We know cave formations exist within the proposed mine expansion area. The unexplored Witches’ Pantry Cave, discovered in 2019, is a key example,” Citizens’ Alliance Vice President Heather McGregor said in a prepared statement to the Post Independent. “Mining those limestone layers would destroy those caves, and could disrupt the complex underground network that recharges the hot springs aquifer. If the underground groundwater network is damaged, Glenwood Springs could lose an irreplaceable natural resource that is also the economic driver of our community.”