It preserves fossils dating back to the late Guadalupian Epoch of the Permian period.

It rests on the San Andres Formation, from which it is separated by an erosional surface showing karst features.

The Queen Formation is part of the Artesia Group, which is interpreted as a sequence of shelf rocks of the Capitan reef.

[1][5] The unit was first named as the Queen sandstone of the upper San Andres Formation by Grant Blanchard and Morgan Davis in 1929.

[6] The unit was promoted to formation rank and assigned to the Whitehorse Group by Ronald DeFord and Russell Lloyd in 1940.