Historical Marker
Llano Estacado
Melrose, Roosevelt County · New Mexico
The panel's nomadic Indians have names in the expedition's own accounts. In 1541 Coronado's army met people the Spaniards called Querechos, who lived in hide lodges, followed the buffalo and moved their goods on travois pulled by dogs; they were almost certainly Plains Apache. Farther east, in canyons below the plain's eastern edge, lived the Teyas, enemies of the Querechos, painted or tattooed and probably Caddoan speakers. It was the Teyas who told Coronado he was headed the wrong way for Quivira. A later photograph shows spray paint over most of this panel's text.
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
34.42525, -103.74427 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Bosque Redondo Memorial — 26 miThe state site at Fort Sumner that for decades told the story of an army post and an outlaw, remade with Diné and Ndé people into a memorial to those held here.
- Blackwater Draw — 26 miThe site between Clovis and Portales that gave the Clovis culture its name, found by a nineteen-year-old in 1929 and dug for decades inside a working gravel pit.