Boca Tierra Caverns, NM

The Boca Tierra Caverns in southern New Mexico have a long and storied history, from the days when they were reputed to be “the gullet of the earth,” leading into its innermost depths, to their discovery and exploration by Spanish and American settlers into the region.   Stories abounded about how the caverns were linked to “lost mines” rich with gold, emeralds, diamonds… all the riches of the Earth, but most would-be prospectors found nothing but frustration and beautiful (but largely worthless) rock formations, and more than a few found their ends in deep chasms and rock falls.   In the 1950s, the U.S. government used the caverns for scientific testing and study, both for the controlled environment and the proximity to nuclear testing sites in the desert southwest, with the caverns shielded by vast amounts of metal-laced rock. It was not until decades later that they discovered Boca Tierra was connected to the vast depths of Sub-Terra through a shifting series of dimensional passages that caused the labyrinthine tunnels of the deep caves to seemingly rearrange themselves.   An attack by magmin, native rock mutants of Sub-Terra, led to the abandonment of the research facility and the closing of Boca Tierra. AEGIS, aided by the U.S. Army, maintains a watch-post near the sealed entrance to the caverns, and they have dealt with the occasional creature that finds its way to the surface over the years. Attempts to find a more permanent solution—such as collapsing the whole cave complex—have been dismissed as too dangerous, given the unstable nature of the structure and the unknown variables of the dimensional interface.