Īpart from the nature reserve, there is also the Black Mesa State Park encompassing 549 acres (2.22 km 2), with a 200 acres (0.81 km 2) lake known as Lake Carl Etling.
The peak is accessible along an 8-mile-long (13 km) trail. The preserve protects 60% of the area of the mesa peak. The mesa lies in the protected area known as the Black Mesa Nature Preserve which was established in 1991, covering 1,600 acres (6.5 km 2). Clear fossil physical evidence, a distinct line of footprints believed to have been made by an allosaurus, has been found juxtaposed with the Carrizo Creek, which runs around the modern-day northern edge of the mesa. These remains were split between several species, including stegosaurus, camptosaurus, diplodocus, and edmontosaurus. A large quantity of dinosaur bones has been recovered from the Black Mesa locale totaling over eighteen tonnes. īeginning in 1935, geologists and paleontologists have searched the mesa's outcroppings, finding dinosaur fossils in the Jurassic and Triassic strata. Strata exposed along the mesa below the basalt and Ogallala include the Cretaceous Dakota Sandstone and the Jurassic Morrison Formation. During the years since the eruption, the adjacent rock of the Ogallala and older formations have been removed leaving the valley-filling basalt perched atop a long ridge. The erupting lava filled a stream channel in the Pliocene age Ogallala Formation. The volcanic cap to the mesa is 600 feet (180 m) thick, 55 miles (89 km) long and from 0.5 miles to 8 miles wide, which is 65 miles (105 km) to the north-northwest of Oklahoma. The lava erupted from a vent in the Raton-Clayton volcanic field in northeastern New Mexico and southeastern Colorado. The mesa is capped by erosion-resistant basaltic lava formed by a volcanic eruption 3 to 5 million years ago. The visual and map view appearance of Black Mesa is as an " inverted valley" because erosion has removed the relatively soft sedimentary strata from either side of the resistant Raton basalt of the lava which originally had occupied and filled a river valley. A nearby weather station is located in Kenton.Ĭlimate data for Kenton, Oklahoma (Elevation 4,330ft) Climate īlack Mesa is not only the highest point in Oklahoma but it is also the driest, harshest and coldest place in the state. The mesa's highest point within Oklahoma is marked by a granite obelisk, and a visitors' log. Ī hiking trail of 4.2 miles (6.8 km) leads from the preserve to the summit which rises about 800 feet (240 m) above the level of the surrounding plains, and a round trip requires four hours minimum overnight camping is not permitted. In northwestern Cimarron County, Oklahoma, Black Mesa reaches 4,973 feet (1,516 m), the highest point in the state of Oklahoma. The highest point of Black Mesa within New Mexico is 5,239 feet (1,597 m). Its highest elevation is 5,705 feet (1,739 m) in Colorado. The mesa's base includes a 200-foot (61 m) escarpment which is parallel with the Dry Cimarron River's north bank. Some features include the Old Maid Rock, Īnd Devil's Tombstone. The Black Mesa plateau is part of the Rocky Mountains and the shortgrass prairie. The Mesa is situated in Cimarron County in the Oklahoma Panhandle. In more recent times, at least one person has claimed to have been abducted by extraterrestrial aliens at Black Mesa. However, as new settlers arrived in the area for copper and coal mining and also for cattle ranching activities by grazing cattle in the mesa region, law enforcement became more effective, and the outlaws were brought under control. The present-day Oklahoma Panhandle area, which was then considered a no man's land, lacked law enforcement agencies and hence the outlaws found it safe to hide in the region. The stone fort housed a blacksmith shop, gun ports, and a piano. The outlaws built a fort known as the Robbers' Roost.
In the late-nineteenth and early twentieth century the area was a hideout for outlaws such as William Coe and Black Jack Ketchum. The plateau has been home to Plains Indians.
There is abundant wildlife in this shortgrass prairie environment, including mountain lions, butterflies, and the Texas horned lizard. The plateau that formed at the top of the mesa has been known as a "geological wonder" of North America. It extends from Mesa de Maya, Colorado southeasterly 28 miles (45 km) along the north bank of the Cimarron River, crossing the northeast corner of New Mexico to end at the confluence of the Cimarron River and North Carrizo Creek near Kenton in the Oklahoma panhandle. states of Colorado, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. Black Mesa (the United States) Show map of the United Statesīlack Mesa is a mesa in the U.S.
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