Tucumcari Mountain, a mesa near Tucumcari, New Mexico, has long stood out as a landmark on the plains and gave the nearby town its name in 1908 after the settlement began in 1901. Its name’s origin is uncertain, though it may derive from a Comanche term or an earlier related place-name recorded in 1777. For centuries, the mesa served as a guidepoint and lookout for prehistoric Puebloans, Plains Indians, Comancheros, and Comanche hunters, and it was noted by travelers and expeditions in 1793 and 1849. It also figured in nineteenth-century geological debates before later study identified its rock beds as Cretaceous.

Tucumcari, New Mexico · USA