[4] The 13th Cavalry was stretched along the border on outpost duty from Noria to Hermanas on the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad.

Almost overnight, the camp became a large military installation for protection from other raids and in preparation for a punitive expedition into Mexico to be led by General John J. Pershing.

[3] The 1st Aero Squadron's Curtiss JN3 Jenny biplanes provided aerial observation and communications for the expedition, although most of the aircraft were lost to crashes in the rugged Mexican mountains.

A separate, purpose-built structure serves as the State Park visitor center, with exhibits describing the histories of Pancho Villa, the Columbus raid of 1916, and Pershing's Punitive Expedition.

[6] The historic district also includes the former airfield, which is east of the state park, the former railroad station of the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad (which now houses the local historical society museum), and the former Hoover Hotel, an adobe structure that was one of the only other buildings to survive, and which now houses a desert art gallery.