Capitan Mountains
Encyclopedia
Mountain range
A mountain range is a single, large mass consisting of a succession of mountains or narrowly spaced mountain ridges, with or without peaks, closely related in position, direction, formation, and age; a component part of a mountain system or of a mountain chain...
in Lincoln County
Lincoln County, New Mexico
-2010:Whereas according to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau:*85.1% White*0.5% Black*2.4% Native American*0.4% Asian*0.0% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander*2.5% Two or more races*9.1% Other races*29.8% Hispanic or Latino -2000:...
, in south-central New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
in the southwestern United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The range is about 20 miles (32 km) long from east to west and about 6 miles (10 km) wide, formed from a large, elongated granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
intrusion similar to the round one that produced Carrizo Mountain to the west.
Capitan, New Mexico
Capitan is a village in Lincoln County, New Mexico, United States, located north of the Lincoln National Forest between the Capitan and Sacramento Mountains at an elevation of 6,530 feet . The population was 1,443 at the 2000 census...
, on the southwestern side of the mountains, is the location of Smokey Bear
Smokey Bear
Smokey Bear is a mascot of the United States Forest Service created to educate the public about the dangers of forest fires. An advertising campaign featuring Smokey was created in 1944 with the slogan, "Smokey Says – Care Will Prevent 9 out of 10 Forest Fires". Smokey Bear's later slogan,...
Historical Park, which memorializes the famous bear that was rescued from the Capitan Gap Fire
Capitan Gap fire
The Capitan Gap Fire was a human-caused forest fire that broke out in Lincoln National Forest, New Mexico in the Capitan mountain range in 1950. The fire devastated 17,000 acres ....
in the Capitan Mountains. The highest point in the range is an unnamed peak that reaches 10,201 feet (3139 m), 118 feet (36 m) higher than Capitan Peak. The entirety of the range lies within Lincoln National Forest
Lincoln National Forest
The Lincoln National Forest is a protected national forest in the State of New Mexico in the southwestern United States. It was established in 1902 and covers 1,103,828 acres...
and is separated from the Sacramento Mountains
Sacramento Mountains
The Sacramento Mountains are a mountain range in the south-central part of the U.S. state of New Mexico, lying just east of Alamogordo in Otero County...
to the south and Sierra Blanca
Sierra Blanca
Sierra Blanca is a range of volcanic mountains in Lincoln and Otero counties of south-central New Mexico. The range is about from north to south and wide, and is dominated by Sierra Blanca Peak, whose highest point is at...
to the southwest by the valley of Rio Bonito.
The Spanish used to use this mountain range as a landmark (due to it being the only East to West mountain range in New Mexico) on their way between Mexico and Santa Fe.