Shaded Relief Image of the Llano Estacado

Llano Estacado (Sp. /ˈʎano ˌestəˈkado/, "Palisaded Plains") is a region in the southwestern United States that encompasses parts of eastern New Mexico and northwestern Texas, including the South Plains and parts of the Texas Panhandle. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Eastern New Mexico is a region of the US state of New Mexico. Texas ( is a state geographically located in the South Central United States and is also known as the Lone Star State. The South Plains is a region in West Texas comprising the area north of the Caprock Escarpment on the Llano Estacado, and extending north into the The Texas Panhandle is a region of the US state of Texas consisting of the northernmost 26 counties in the state It is a large mesa, or tableland; while the elevation rises from 3000 ft in the southeast to over 5000 ft in the northwest, sloping almost uniformly at about 10 feet per mile ^[1], the elevation change is imperceptible to the observer, making the landscape appear almost completely flat. A mesa ( Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic for "table" is an elevated area of land with a flat top and sides that are usually steep cliffs

Geography and climate

The Llano Estacado lies at the southern end of the High Plains section of the Great Plains of North America and is part of what was once called the Great American Desert. This article is about a geographic region in the United States The Great Plains are the broad expanse of Prairie and Steppe which lie east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada The Great American Desert is a term that was used in the 19th century to describe the High Plains east of the Rocky Mountains. The Canadian River forms the Llano's northern boundary, separating it from the rest of the High Plains. The Canadian River is the largest Tributary of the Arkansas River. To the east, the Caprock Escarpment, a precipitous cliff about 300 ft high, lies between the Llano and the red Permian plains of Texas, while to the west, the Mescalero Escarpment demarcates the edge of the Pecos River valley. The Caprock Escarpment is a geographical transition point in Texas between the High Plains / Llano Estacado to the west and the North Central Plains The Mescalero Escarpment forms the western edge of the great Llano Estacado, a vast Plateau or tableland in the south-western United States. The Pecos River or Rio Pecos as it is sometimes known in New Mexico, arises near Pecos New Mexico, United States, and flows for through the eastern The Llano has no natural southern boundary, instead blending into the Edwards Plateau near Big Spring, Texas. The Edwards Plateau is a region of west-central Texas which is bounded by the Balcones Fault to the south and east the Llano Uplift and the plains region Big Spring is a town in the US state of Texas at the crossroads of U This geographic area stretches about 250 mi north to south, and 150 mi east to west, a total area of some 37,500 sq mi, larger than all of New England, and covering all or part of thirty-three Texas counties and four New Mexico counties. History See also History of New England New England's earliest inhabitants were Algonquian -speaking Native Americans including the ^[2]

Escarpment that defines the northern edge of Llano Estacado. Location: 10 miles south of San Jon, New Mexico. Photo credit: J. E. Stout

Spanish conquistador Francisco Coronado, the first European to traverse this "sea of grass" in 1541, 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 . Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. This article is about the Spanish explorer soldiers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuriesfor other uses see Conquistador (disambiguation A Conquistador Francisco Vázquez de Coronado y Luján (Born in 1510 &ndash Died on September 22 1554 was a Spanish Conquistador, who visited New Mexico and other A league is a unit of Length or Area long common in Europe and Latin America, although no longer an official unit in any nation . . 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. "^[2] General Randolph Marcy, after his expedition to explore the headwaters of the Red and Colorado rivers in 1852, agreed: "[not] a tree, shrub, or any other herbage to intercept the vision. Randolph Barnes Marcy ( April 9, 1812 – November 22, 1887) was a career officer in the United States Army, achieving the rank of For other uses see Red River. The Red River is one of several rivers with that name. The Colorado River (' Aha Kwahwat in Mojave) is a River in the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately . . the almost total absence of water causes all animals to shun it: even the Indians do not venture to cross it except at two or three places. "^[2] The landscape is, however, dotted by numerous small playa lakes, seasonal depressions that fill with water, making an important habitat for waterfowl. See also UK Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust USA Ducks Unlimited

The Llano Estacado has a semi-arid climate (Köppen Bsk), characterized by long hot summers and cold winters. A Semi-arid climate or steppe climate generally describes climatic regions that receive low annual Rainfall (250-500 mm or 10-20 in The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems It was developed by Wladimir Köppen, a German climatologist Rainfall is extremely low; the entire region receives less than 23" of rainfall annually, and the western part receives as little as 14". High summer temperatures (average July temperature above 85° F) mean that most of this already-small amount of precipitation is lost to evaporation, making dry-land farming extremely difficult. ^[2]

The Llano Estacado is one of the largest cotton-producing regions of the United States. Cotton is a soft staple Fibre that grows around the seeds of the cotton plant ( Gossypium sp The United States of America —commonly referred to as the

All the agriculture-enabling water visible on the Llano today is brought to the surface by electrical pumps. Before electricity, grazing was possible and large ranches existed. However, grazing soon destroyed the fragile grass. The scanty rainfall simply evaporates or disappears into the porous soil, and cannot refill the parched aquifer at the rate it is being depleted. There are no nearby sources of abundant water, and the Pecos runs nearly dry from irrigation diversions. When the store of water is gone, there will be no more to support the large cities of Lubbock and Amarillo. There was a permanent oasis, Monument Spring, not far from Hobbs, New Mexico, that was one of the rare watering places. The "monument" was a pile of caliche raised by the Native Americans to guide people to the spot. Caliche is a hardened deposit of Calcium carbonate. This calcium carbonate cements together other materials including gravel sand clay and silt

History and name

The region's name was given to the region by Coronado himself, when he saw the cliffs of the Caprock Escarpment from the north on his way east from Cíbola, appearing to him as an impenetrable defense for the land and leading him to dub it the Llano Estacado, Spanish for "Palisaded Plains. Quivira and Cíbola are two of the fantastic Seven Cities of Gold existing only in a myth that originated around the year 1150 when the Moors conquered Mérida " The name is often mistranslated as "staked plain," and fanciful stories have been created to explain this title. Some allude to yucca stems, others to actual stakes driven into the ground as landmarks, and still others to similar, even less plausible objects. The yuccas comprise the Genus Yucca of 40-50 species of perennials Shrubs and Trees in the Agave family None of these have ever been evident enough to be responsible for the name, especially not to Coronado riding along the Canadian. ^[2]

The Caprock Escarpment as seen from its eastern side, facing north from just outside Dickens, Texas. Dickens is a city in Dickens County, Texas, United States. The population was 332 at the 2000 census

The horses of the conquistadors were the first to return to the Great Plains since their extinction in North America eons earlier. The horse ( Equus caballus) is a hoofed ( Ungulate) Mammal, one of eight living species of the family Equidae. Some horses would escape, thus giving horses to some of the Native American tribes in the succeeding centuries. For indigenous peoples in the United States other than Hawaii and Alaska see also Native Americans in the United States. Before this, the dog was their largest domesticated animal. The dog ( Canis lupus familiaris) is a domesticated Subspecies of the gray wolf, a Mammal of the Canidae family of the order Domestication (from Latin domesticus) refers to the process whereby a Population of Animals

In the latter part of the 19th century, the Llano was then a refuge for the bands of Kiowas and Comanches who did not wish to be cooped up in Oklahoma. The 19th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar The Kiowa (ˈkaɪoʊwə are a nation of American Indians who migrated from what is now Canada to their present location in Southwestern Oklahoma. The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose range (the Comancheria) consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado Oklahoma ( is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. One of the last battles was fought in bitter cold on 2 December 1874 in Palo Duro Canyon. Year 1874 ( MDCCCLXXIV) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Palo Duro Canyon is a Canyon system of the Caprock Escarpment in the Panhandle of Texas ( USA) The waterless surface was very difficult for the U. S. Cavalry to cope with, and it was easy to disappear into the slight draws of its featureless expanse, or into the labyrinths of canyons like Palo Duro.

Because of the lack of surface water, low rainfall, and the harsher climate, the Llano was one of the last areas to be settled and farmed in contemporary Texas. Better well-drilling technology by the late 1910s to 1920s was responsible for the maintenance and growth of many caprock towns. However, over-utilization of the underground aquifer has led to a major move back towards dryland crops since the 1970s.

Human population

Map of Texas counties with population density.

The Llano Estacado has an extremely low population density, as can be seen in the map to the right; most of the area's population is localized in the principal cities of Amarillo, Lubbock, and Midland/Odessa, Texas. Midland is a city in and the County seat of Midland County located on the Southern Plains of the western area of the U Odessa is a city in Ector and Midland Counties in the US state of Texas. The vast majority of the area is rural, covered by large ranches and irrigated farms. Several small- to medium-sized towns do exist, however, including Plainview, Levelland, and Lamesa, Texas and Clovis and Hobbs, New Mexico. Plainview is a city in and the County seat of Hale County, Texas, United States. Levelland is a city in Hockley County, Texas, in the United States. Lamesa (pronounced "la-MEE-sa" "la-MEE-suh" is the seat of Dawson County, Texas, United States. Clovis is a City in and the County seat of Curry County, New Mexico, United States Hobbs is a city in Lea County New Mexico. The population was 28657 at the 2000 census.

Lubbock, TX, the largest city on the Llano

Geology

The Ogallala Group is a late Tertiary (Pliocene) sheet of sediments spread over the area east of the Rocky Mountains from Wyoming to Texas, rather recently in a geological sense, when the Colorado Plateau and Rocky Mountain regions were elevated from near sea level to about their current elevations, and the eroded sediments (mainly earlier Tertiary rocks) spread over the low plains to the east. The chuprichondira geological time interval covers roughly the time span between the demise of the non- avian Dinosaurs and beginning of the most recent Ice Age, approximately The Pliocene epoch (spelled Pleiocene in some older texts is the period in the Geologic timescale that extends Mountain peaks of the Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, often called the Rockies, are a Mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains had been formed much earlier, at the end of the Cretaceous and the beginning of the Tertiary eras, and had been worn down to near flatness before the late Tertiary uplift. In the northern areas, the Ogallala was spread over earlier Tertiary and Cretaceous rocks, but in the Llano Estacado area erosion had removed everything down to the Triassic, and even to the Permian redbeds. The Triassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about 251 to 199 Ma (million years ago The Permian is a geologic period and system that extends from 299 At the southern end, some Cretaceous limestone remained, however. The Cretaceous (kriːˈteɪʃəs, usually abbreviated 'K' for its German translation "Kreide" is a geologic period and system, reaching from the end of The Ogallala was laid down over all of this by lazy, sandy streams near sea level, which produced the flatness of its surface. Subsequently, the uplift to the west progressed to the east, raising and tilting the Ogallala surface to its present position, and changing the environment from depositional to erosional. Some major rivers, such as the Pecos and Canadian, incised their courses deeply as the region was elevated, while others, such as the Red, Brazos, and Colorado, arose on the dip slope. The Pecos River or Rio Pecos as it is sometimes known in New Mexico, arises near Pecos New Mexico, United States, and flows for through the eastern For other uses see Red River. The Red River is one of several rivers with that name. The Brazos River, called the Rio de los Brazos de Dios by early Spanish explorers (translated as "The River of the Arms of God" is the 11th longest river in the The Colorado River (' Aha Kwahwat in Mojave) is a River in the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately The erosion of these rivers has now defined the area of the Llano Estacado, separating it from its Rocky Mountain sources and from other parts of the High Plains.

Other areas of the Ogallala surface, or High Plains, have the same history. In Wyoming, it is still in contact with the mountains west of Cheyenne (the "Gangplank"), but elsewhere it is separated from the mountains by valleys of Cretaceous and earlier rocks due to active erosion at these higher levels. The State of Wyoming ( is a sparsely populated state in the western region of the United States. Only in the Llano Estacado area has the formation of the Caprock given rise to a prominent, distinctive, palisade-like escarpment, as well as to a remarkably flat surface; further north, rivers such as the Platte, Arkansas, and Cimarron have sliced it into segments. The Platte River is an approximately 310 mi (499 km long river in the Western United States. The Arkansas River is a major Tributary of the Mississippi River. The Cimarron River extends 698 miles (1123 km across New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Kansas.

Palo Duro Canyon along the eastern edge of Llano Estacado. Photo credit: J. E. Stout

Another distinctive characteristic is that the surrounding rocks are often red, as in Palo Duro Canyon, making a striking contrast with the light-colored rocks of the plateau. In some other places, the erosional edge of the High Plains is marked by "breaks" or other abrupt changes of scenery, as in eastern Wyoming and western Nebraska. In these areas, the High Plains are usually sandy, rolling plains with normal, branching drainage, not flat surfaces without continuous streams.

Hydrogeology

The "bedrock" of the plain is the indurated top of the Ogallala Group, a hard caliche layer called the Caprock. Hydrogeology ( hydro- meaning water and -geology meaning the study of the Earth) is the area of Geology that deals with the distribution and The Ogallala Aquifer, also known as the High Plains Aquifer, is a vast yet shallow underground Water table Aquifer located beneath the Great Plains This was formed when surface drying caused mineral-laden water to rise by capillary action to the surface. Evaporating, the minerals were left behind to cement the otherwise fairly loose sandy sediments of the Ogallala Group. The Caprock is generally covered by sands and soils. Where soils predominate, the land is fertile when irrigated, and is devoted to field crops, including grain and cotton. Irrigation water is mined from the deeper parts of the Ogallala Group by electric pumps, since there is almost no usable surface water. The pumped water is used much more rapidly than it is replenished,^[2] so eventually the Llano will return to its natural state of sparse grassland, minus its subterranean water, gas, and oil.

Other meanings

Llano Estacado Winery is a winery located near Lubbock, Texas. Llano Estacado Winery is a Winery located in Lubbock, Texas. Llano Estacado is the largest premium winery in the state of Texas and produces wines of world A winery is a building or property that produces Wine, or a business involved in the production of wine such as a wine company.

"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. Folk music can have a number of different meanings including Traditional music: The original meaning of the term "folk music" was synonymous Thomas George "Tom" Russell (born 5 March 1950 in Los Angeles) is an American Singer-songwriter. Sadistic personality disorder is a Personality disorder which only appeared in the revised third edition of the American Psychiatric Association 's Diagnostic A desert is a Landscape or region that receives very little precipitation. NOTICE TO WOULD-BE ROMEOS ************** "

See also

• List of geographical regions in Texas

References