Bipartisan effort seeks national park status for Chiricahua monument

Rep. Juan Ciscomani and Sen. Mark Kelly have partnered on legislation that would upgrade Chiricahua National Monument to a national park.

The Republican congressman and Democratic senator introduced companion bills earlier this month to elevate the status of the roughly 12,000-acre monument about 120 miles southeast of Tucson.

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema co-sponsored the Senate version of the Chiricahua National Park Act.

The area in Cochise County features slim columns of rock called hoodoos that attract visitors from around the world. The gray, chimney-like, rhyolitic 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 of Standing Up Rock.”

“These unique formations draw visitors from across the nation and around the world to our state, and this tourism is an important part of our regional economy,” Ciscomani said in a written statement. “With this legislation, the Chiricahuas will finally receive the designation they deserve. It is long overdue.”

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

“Our bipartisan legislation to designate Chiricahua National Monument as a national park would further promote conservation, boost tourism, and create economic opportunities in Southern Arizona,” Kelly said.

If approved, Chiricahua would become Arizona’s fourth national park, joining the ranks of Grand Canyon, Petrified Forest and Saguaro.

This is not the first time such legislation has been introduced. A grassroots campaign has lobbied for the status change since as early as 2015.

Then-Rep. Martha McSally introduced a bill to upgrade the monument to a park in 2016, but the measure failed to advance. She tried again as a senator in 2019 with the same result.

Kelly and Sinema finally got the bill passed unanimously in the Senate in 2022, but the legislation stalled in the House, as did a related bill from then-Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick.

Kirkpatrick’s version included specific language prohibiting future mining in the park. It also mandated consultation with affiliated American Indian tribes to protect the park’s cultural and religious sites and allowed members of those tribes to collect plants there for noncommercial religious or cultural uses.

President Calvin Coolidge established Chiricahua National Monument by proclamation in 1924. A decade later, the Civilian Conservation Corps began improving the road and building trails and structures there.

Today, the monument includes 25 campsites and 17 miles of hiking trails.

It is unclear if an upgrade in status would increase the budget and staffing for the area, which is already managed by the National Park Service.

But communities near the monument, some of which are struggling, welcome the tourism boost the status change could bring. The Cochise County Board of Supervisors and the cities of Benson, Bisbee, Willcox and Huachuca City are all backing the new legislation.

“National Park designation for the Chiricahua National Monument would alert more travelers nationwide to the unique beauty and history of Southeastern Arizona,” said Cochise County Supervisor Ann English, a member of Ciscomani’s Citizens Advisory Council. “For no additional cost, adding this designation would put it on the ‘bucket list’ of park enthusiasts and be a needed economic boon for the area.”