Beneath the rugged and rocky slopes of Carlsbad Caverns National Park in the Guadalupe Mountains in southeastern New Mexico, lies a hidden underground treasure. An extensive system of caves comprising of 118 caves and many hundred miles of caverns and tunnels all formed as sulfuric acid dissolved the surrounding limestone. The largest of them is aptly named the Big Room. This natural limestone chamber is almost 1.2 km long, 191 meters wide, and 78 meters high at the highest point, and covers a floor space of 33,210 square meters (357,469 square feet).

Tucked away at a corner of the Big Room, at the head of the Left Hand Tunnel, where the elevators from the visitor center exit into the cave, is a cafeteria - 750 feet underground.

Carlsbad Caverns Underground Lunchroom in 1960's Photo credit