Mesa Del Contadero

The mesa is a 300-foot mass of black volcanic rock, and the Valverde fords lay just north of it. At dawn on February 21, 1862, Union cavalry passed west of it to the lower ford while a slightly larger Texan force skirted its eastern edge and stopped in the cottonwoods by the upper ford to water its horses. Captain Alexander McRae's battery crossed to the east bank and was overrun that afternoon; McRae, who had refused his father's urging to join the South, died at his guns. The Confederates won the field but never took Fort Craig.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Mesa del Contadero Heavily armed caravans passed beneath the black mesa on the east bank of the Rio Grande. Located on the northern edge of the Camino Real's Jornada del Muerto, this region remained relatively uninhabited until after Forts Conrad and Craig were established nearby in the 1850s. This landmark derives its name from a narrow passage through which livestock were herded and counted.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge — 6.3 mi
  A Rio Grande refuge south of Socorro where cranes and geese winter by the tens of thousands on wetlands and fields kept by people, because the river no longer floods to make them.

More markers nearby

• Fort Craig — 8.1 mi
• Paraje De Fra Cristobal — 13 mi
• Fort Craig Rest Area — 13 mi
• Paraje de Fra Cristobal — 13 mi