[1] It is situated at the base of Dog Canyon and provides opportunities for camping, hiking, picnicking, wildlife viewing, a nature trail, and guided tours of the ranch house.

The Dog Canyon National Recreational Trail climbs to provide views of the Tularosa Basin and the Organ Mountains.

The Dog Canyon tract was used by Apache warriors as a defensive position and a base of operations during their numerous battles and wars with Euro-American explorers and settlers.

[2] As a well known rancher Lee was able to use his political influence to bring the railroad to nearby Alamogordo in 1898 and establish financial connections with influential citizens in El Paso, Texas.

The Otero County area of New Mexico receives very little rain with an average yearly rainfall of just 11.6 inches (290 mm).

[3] The fact that a perennially flowing stream of water passes through Dog Canyon made it an important location for settlement by Native Americans that lived in, and travelled through the Tularosa Basin.

The Oliver Lee Memorial State Park area saw numerous conflicts between the Apache and Anglo-Americans from 1848 until 1912.

[2] In February 1858, Lieutenant H. M. Lazelle attacked the Mescalero Apache in retaliation for a cattle raid on San Elizario, and was defeated.

His home is marked by a partly reconstructed cabin on the interpretive trail that is west of the park's visitor center.

Colonel Fountain had gone to the Lincoln County court and obtained 32 indictments against 23 ranchers for theft of livestock or defacement of brands.

Garrett and posse engaged in a gunbattle with Lee and Gililland near Alamogordo at Wildy Well, with Deputy Sheriff Kurt Kearney being killed.

Lee's friend, Albert Fall and other Democrats offered to honor Otero, the Republican Governor, with the creation of a county named after him.

He and Oliver Lee were accused of killing Colonel Albert J. Fountain and his son, Henry, at Chalk Hill, New Mexico at the point of the White Sands.

"[7] Oliver Lee Memorial State Park is at the base of the western escarpment of the Sacramento Mountains of New Mexico.

[2] Evidence of marine life in the area points to a time period when the land was covered by a shallow sea.

[2] Rocks from the Mississippian age show continental shelf deposits and reef-like remains of fossilized crinoids, bryozoans and dense limestone.

It was formed 25 million years ago by faults that caused the surrounding mountains to fall and the basin to sink.

[2] Dog Canyon was carved into the basin fill materials of sand, silt and clay by heavy runoffs of earth and water from the surrounding mountains.

The stream found in Dog Canyon has created a riparian environment in Oliver Lee Memorial State Park that is unique for the area.

[2] Trees found along the stream include Rio Grande cottonwood (Populus deltoides wislizeni), New Mexico locust (Robinia neomexicana), and velvet ash (Fraxinus velutina).

In the areas away from the stream one-seeded juniper (Juniperus monosperma), desert willow (Chilopsis linearis) and netleaf hackberry (Celtis reticulata) are found.

Shrubs of the park include four-wind saltbush (Atriplex canescens) and creosote bush (Larrea tridentata.

Wild grapes (Vitis arizonica) and western poison ivy (Toxicodendron rydbergii) can be found in the cool and wetter parts of Dog Canyon.

Aquatic plants like cattail (Typha angustifolia), giant helleborine (Epipactis gigantea) and maidenhair fern (Adiantum capillus-veneris) are sustained by the stream that flows through the canyon.

[2] Oliver Lee Memorial State Park is home to mammals that are typically found in the upper Chihuahuan Desert.

They include collared peccary, ground squirrels, mule deer, black-tailed jackrabbit and the desert cottontail.

[2] The park is also home to birds such as turkey vultures, red-tailed hawks, mourning doves, hummingbirds, warblers and wrens.