Chiricahua is the nation’s newest national park – what does that mean?

A large rock balanced atop another is one of the striking features of the Chiricahua landscape. Pretzelpaws via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

With a stroke of a pen, President Donald Trump has officially created the United States’ 64th national park.

Chiricahua, in southeastern Arizona, was established as a national monument in April 1924 to protect its towering rhyolite hoodoos – tall spires of rock – and diversity of wildlife. The mountainous landscape is commonly known as a “wonderland of rocks.”