Tucumcari Mountain

The mountain settled a geologists' argument. Jules Marcou, crossing with the 1853 railroad survey, declared its strata Jurassic; Texas's state survey showed them Cretaceous in the 1890s, and the Tucumcari Shale is named from them. Read from the bottom up, the mesa stacks Triassic red beds, Jurassic Entrada Sandstone and Morrison beds, the Tucumcari Shale and a cap of Mesa Rica Sandstone, with Ogallala gravel above. Town residents painted a hillside letter T on its face. The summit stands nearly nine hundred feet above the town.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Tucumcari Mountain Tucumcari Mountain has long been a landmark for travelers along the Canadian River. Pathfinder Pedro Vial mentioned it in 1793, while opening a trail between Sante Fe and St. Louis. In order to find the best route from Arkansas to California, Capt. Randolph B. Marcy led an ex- pedition past here in 1849. The town of Tucumcari was founded in 1901 and takes its name from the moun- tain, which signaled people traveling Route 66 and Interstate 40 that rest was nearby.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Blue Swallow Motel — 2.0 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

• Comanche Country — 2.2 mi
• Yetta Kohn (1843-1917) — 2.2 mi
• Tucumcari Mountain — 2.7 mi
• Tucumcari — 2.7 mi