Llano Estacado
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Llano Estacado (or Staked Plains) is a region in the southwestern United States that encompasses parts of eastern New Mexico and northwestern Texas. It is a large mesa, or tableland, and relatively flat over most of its terrain. It is dotted by numerous small playa lakes or seasonal depressions that fill with water, an important source of habitat for waterfowl. It is bounded on the north by the Canadian River, on the east by the Caprock Escarpment and on the west by the Mescalero Escarpment. The Llano Estacado covers some 35,000 square miles. Its elevation rises from 2500' in the east to over 5000' in the west, although the elevation change is imperceptible to the observer. The Llano Estacado has a semi-arid climate, characterized by long hot summers and cold winters. Most of the Llano Estacado is considered to be a part of Tornado Alley because of its numerous tornadic storms during the spring and summer.
Llano Estacado is Spanish for staked plain. It is the southern end of the High Plains section of the Great Plains and is part of what was once called the Great American Desert. The term staked plain arose after Spanish conquistador Francisco Coronado and his troops encountered this "sea of grass". Coronado, the first European to traverse the Llano, described it as follows: "I reached some plains so vast, that I did not find their limit anywhere I went, although I travelled over them for more than 300 leagues ... with no more land marks than if we had been swallowed up by the sea ... there was not a stone, nor bit of rising ground, nor a tree, nor a shrub, nor anything to go by." Most authorities believe that the term originates from the stockade-like appearance of the geologic formations which form its boundaries. A minority believe that Coronado and his men drove wooden stakes into the ground so that they could find their way out of the tall prairie grass. However, later explorers found markers of rocks, buffalo bones, and dung, not wooden stakes. [1] An anecdotal version of the origin of the name claims that the "stakes" were the long, straight stalks of the yucca plants found in the region.
It should be noted that the horses of the conquistadors were the first to return to the Great Plains since their extinction in North America eons earlier. Some horses would escape, thus giving horses to some of the Native American tribes in the succeeding centuries. Before this, the dog was their largest domesticated animal.
The Llano Estacado has an extremely low population density. Most of the area is covered by large ranches and irrigated farms. Important cities on the Llano include Amarillo, Lubbock, and Midland in Texas and Clovis, Roswell, and Hobbs in New Mexico.
[edit] Other meanings
Llano Estacado is also the name of an award-winning winery in Lubbock, Texas.
"El Llano Estacado" is a traditional folk song adapted by Tom Russell, which, according to Brian Burns (who has recorded a version of the song with Russell), is a tale in which the "subject falls victim to the whim of a sadistic señorita and decides to take on the West Texas desert to win her hand in marriage."
[edit] References
- Llano Estacado from the Handbook of Texas Online
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