Bottomless Lakes State Park

The water in these sinkholes fell as rain west of Roswell. It soaks into the San Andres limestone on the Pecos Slope, flows east beneath the valley under pressure, and rises here through gypsum beds it has been dissolving, which is how the lakes formed and why geologists say they are still growing. In country where evaporation outruns rainfall about sevenfold, Lea Lake alone overflows some 15,000 acre-feet a year into wetlands that now reach the Pecos, adding water and salt to the river. On this panel, the depth figure sits on a patch.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Bottomless Lakes State Park When 19th Century cowboys attempted to measure these lakes by tying lariats together, they found no bottom and declared the lakes "bottomless." Today we know these sinkholes, formed by collapsed salt and gypsum deposits, are 17 to 90 feet in depth. The park was established in 1933 as New Mexico's first state park.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Bottomless Lakes State Park — 5.9 mi
  Nine sinkhole lakes under red bluffs east of Roswell, named by vaqueros whose ropes never touched bottom, and set aside in 1933 as New Mexico's first state park.
• International UFO Museum and Research Center — 10 mi
  A 1930s movie theater on Roswell's Main Street turned into a museum by two men who had been part of the 1947 story, one of them the officer who announced the flying disc.

More markers nearby

• Louise Massey Mabie (1902-1983) — steps away
• Goodnight-Loving Trail — 2.1 mi
• Roswell — 7.7 mi
• Roswell — 9.9 mi