Historical Marker
Llano Estacado
Hobbs, Lea County · New Mexico
No river drains the plain around here. More than ninety-eight percent of the Southern High Plains runs into its own shallow basins, the playas, more than twenty thousand of them across the Llano Estacado in Texas and New Mexico. Most hold water only after storms, yet they catch nearly all the runoff and carry most of the recharge that reaches the Ogallala aquifer beneath. In wet years they also hold wintering ducks, geese and sandhill cranes by the hundreds of thousands. This panel's text matches the copies at Melrose and Caprock word for word.
What the plaque says
Official Scenic Historic Marker Llano Estacado Nomadic Indians and countless buffalo herds dominated this vast plain when the Vásquez de Coronado expedition explored it in 1541. Later it was the focus of Comanchero activity, and in the 19th century it became a center for cattle ranching. The name Llano Estacado, or stockaded plains, refers to the fortress-like appearance of its escarpments.
Where it stands
32.69684, -103.18674 · Directions
More markers nearby
- Hobbs — 0.3 mi
- Hobbs Discovery Well — 4.0 mi
- Myrtle Attaway Farquhar (1900-1972) — 4.4 mi
- Hobbs Army Air Field — 5.5 mi