New Book Explores History of White Sands National Monument

Nov. 20, 2013 - PRLog -- New to Arcadia Publishing’s popular Images of America series is White Sands National Monument by local author Joseph T. Page II. This pictorial history boasts more than 200 vintage images and provides readers with a unique opportunity to reconnect with the history of this natural wonder.

The world’s largest gypsum dune field, the 275-square-mile dunes of White Sands National Monument, are a geologic oddity more than 250 million years in the making. Located in Southern New Mexico, the popularity of the monument draws nearly half a million visitors each year to the National Park Service’s southwestern region. The area is protected from encroachment by the boundaries of the US Army’s White Sands Missile Range and houses no less than 144 species of birds, 20 unique mammals, and 371 types of insects. The gypsum’s beauty has been captured by photographers and filmmakers for more than a century. Both Hollywood and scientists alike have sought after the monument’s stunning otherworldly visuals to mimic other countries and worlds. The deserts of Qatar were recreated for Transformers (2007), and the monument has been identified as a potential analog site for Mars.

Highlights of White Sands National Monument include:

•Twenty-three motion pictures and nine music videos have been filmed inside the Monument.
•Over 62 species of plants survive within the gypsum dune fields and interdune flats.
•A species of tiny fish, known as the Pupfish, is unique to a river that transits through the monument.
•The national monument is completely surrounded by an active military missile testing range.
•There are four types of dunes found at White Sands: Dome, Barchan, Transverse and Parabolic.

Available at area bookstores, independent retailers, and online retailers, or through Arcadia Publishing at (888)-313-2665 or online.

Arcadia Publishing is the leading publisher of local and regional history in the United States.  Our mission is to make history accessible and meaningful through the publication of books on the heritage of America’s people and places.  Have we done a book on your town?  Visit www.arcadiapublishing.com.