Chiricahua becomes America's 64th national park as Trump signs redesignation law

President Donald Trump has signed the Chiricahua National Park Act into law, redesignating Arizona’s Chiricahua National Monument as Chiricahua National Park — the country’s 64th national park and Arizona’s fourth, after the Grand Canyon, Saguaro and Petrified Forest (USA Today).

Trump signed the bill on Tuesday 20 October, after it cleared the House of Representatives in March and passed the Senate on 30 September (USA Today).

The new park covers about 12,025 acres in the Chiricahua Mountains, roughly 120 miles south-east of Tucson, and is the first new US national park since 2020 (Hindustan Times).

Chiricahua is famed as the “Wonderland of Rocks”: towering rhyolite pinnacles and balanced rocks formed by volcanic eruptions about 27 million years ago. President Calvin Coolidge established it as a national monument in 1924 (USA Today, Arizona Republic).

The mountains are home to coatimundi and some 200 documented bird species, and the park is a certified International Dark Sky Park (EarthSky, USA Today). The area is the ancestral homeland of the Chiricahua Apache, and the Act protects cultural and religious sites and preserves tribal access for customary uses (USA Today).

The measure won bipartisan support: the House bill was introduced by Arizona Reps. Juan Ciscomani, a Republican, and Greg Stanton, a Democrat, while Democratic Senators Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego carried it in the Senate (Arizona Republic).

A designation ceremony at the park’s historic Faraway Ranch was led by Ciscomani and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, where a new national park sign was unveiled (Hindustan Times). Around 70,000 people visited Chiricahua in 2025, and local leaders hope the new status will bring more visitors and investment to south-eastern Arizona (Hindustan Times).