Carlsbad ( KARLZ-bad) is a city in and the county chair of Eddy County, New Mexico, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 32,238. Carlsbad is centered at the intersection of U.S. Routes 62/180 and 285, and is the principal city of the Carlsbad-Artesia Micropolitan Statistical Area, which has a sum population of 55,435. Located in the southeastern allowance of New Mexico, Carlsbad straddles the Pecos River and sits at the eastern edge of the Guadalupe Mountains.

Carlsbad is a hub for potash mining, petroleum production, and tourism. Carlsbad Caverns National Park is located 20 miles (32 km) southwest of the city, and Guadalupe Mountains National Park lies 54 miles (87 km) southwest across the Texas border. The Lincoln National Forest is to the northwest of town.

The go forward of southeastern New Mexico in the late 19th century was fueled by the beginning of colonies of immigrants from England, Switzerland, France, and Italy. Located along the banks of the Pecos River, Carlsbad was originally christened the town of Eddy on September 15, 1888, and organized as a municipal corporation in 1893; the concurrence bore the read out of Charles B. Eddy, co-owner of the Eddy-Bissell Livestock Company. With the trailer development of local mineral springs near the flume for medicinal qualities, the town cutting edge voted to fiddle with its make known to Carlsbad after the famous European spa Carlsbad, Bohemia (now Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic), which in slant was named after Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia. On March 25, 1918, the growing town surpassed a population of 2,000, allowing then-governor of New Mexico Washington Ellsworth Lindsey to proclaim Carlsbad a city.

Most of Carlsbad’s improvement was due to irrigation water. Local cattlemen attributed the value of diverting water from the Pecos River to the grazing lands upon Eddy’s Halagueno Ranch. Many construction projects were undertaken to insist an irrigation system within the town. The Avalon Dam was build up upstream of town, and canals diverted the water into town. Conflict arose gone the canals met the river downstream; as a result, the Pecos River Flume was built, first out of wood and forward-thinking concrete (the flume is often titled the lonely place where a river crosses itself).