Comanche Country

The mountain this town is named for may carry a Comanche word. A Comanche speaker, Felix Kowena, told the linguist Elliott Canonge that tʉkamʉkarʉ meant to lie in wait for something to approach, and that war parties used the peak as a lookout. A 1777 burial record found by Fray Angélico Chávez mentions a Comanche woman and her child captured in a fight at Cuchuncari, apparently the same name. The often-told story of two Apache lovers, Tocom and Kari, is fiction.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Comanche Country By 1700 the Comanches had ac- quired the horse and began mov- ing into this area. They drove out the Jicarilla Apaches, and their raids on New Mexico's eastern frontier posed a threat to Indian, Spanish, and Anglo settlements for over a century. The Comanches were finally de- feated by the U.S. Army in 1874.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Blue Swallow Motel — 0.8 mi
  A twelve-room tourist court on Tucumcari's stretch of Route 66, built in 1939, run for four decades by one woman, and lit by one of the most photographed motel signs on the road.

More markers nearby

• Tucumcari Mountain — 0.8 mi
• Tucumcari — 0.8 mi
• Tucumcari — 1.8 mi
• Yetta Kohn (1843-1917) — 2.0 mi