Tucumcari Mountain, once referred to as Tucumcari Peak or Mesa Tucumcari, is a mesa

Mesa

A mesa or table mountain is an elevated area of land with a flat top and sides that are usually steep cliffs. It takes its name from its characteristic table-top shape....

 situated just outside of Tucumcari, New Mexico

Tucumcari, New Mexico

Tucumcari is a city in and the county seat of Quay County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 5,989 at the 2000 census. Tucumcari was founded in 1901, two years before Quay County was founded.-History:...

.

Pedro Vial mentioned the mountain in 1793, while opening a trail between Santa Fe

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...

 and St. Louis

St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...

. Captain Randolph B. Marcy

Randolph B. Marcy

Randolph Barnes Marcy was a career officer in the United States Army, achieving the rank of Brigadier General before retiring in 1881. Although beginning in 1861 his responsibilities were those of a brigadier general, the U.S...

 led an expedition past it in 1849. The Swiss-American geologist Jules Marcou

Jules Marcou

Jules Marcou was an eminent Swiss-American geologist.He was born at Salins, in the département of Jura, in France....

 studied the geology of Tucumcari Mountain in 1853 and claimed that the Tucumcari strata were of Jurassic

Jurassic

The Jurassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about Mya to  Mya, that is, from the end of the Triassic to the beginning of the Cretaceous. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic era, also known as the age of reptiles. The start of the period is marked by...

 age. The Texas geologist, Robert T. Hill

Robert T. Hill

Robert Thomas Hill was a significant figure in the development of American geology during the late nineteenth century and in the early part of the twentieth century...

, visited "Mesa Tucumcari" in 1887 and again in 1891, and eventually concluded that the Tucumcari strata were much younger Cretaceous

Cretaceous

The Cretaceous , derived from the Latin "creta" , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago. In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the...

 deposits, not Jurassic as suggested by Marcou. Also in 1891, William F. Cummins of the Geological Survey of Texas studied Tucumcari Mountain and his careful observations of the strata established beyond doubt the Cretaceous age of the Tucumcari beds.

The town of Tucumcari was founded in 1901 and takes its name—both in real life and in legend—from the mountain. Residents of the town of Tucumcari have painted a large white T on the mountain.

See also

• Canadian River
  Canadian River
  The Canadian River is the longest tributary of the Arkansas River. It is about long, starting in Colorado and traveling through New Mexico, the Texas Panhandle, and most of Oklahoma....
  
  
• Caprock Escarpment
  Caprock Escarpment
  The Caprock Escarpment is a term used in Texas and Eastern New Mexico to describe the geographical transition point between the level elevated plains of the Llano Estacado and the surrounding rolling terrain. In Texas, the escarpment stretches around 320 km south-southwest from the northeast...
  
  
• Eastern New Mexico
  Eastern New Mexico
  Eastern New Mexico is a region of the U.S. state of New Mexico. The region is sometimes termed the "High Plains" or even "Little Texas". The region is largely coterminous with the Llano Estacado. Eastern New Mexico is generally located at an altitude of over 4,000 feet and is mostly characterized...
  
  
• Llano Estacado
  Llano Estacado
  Llano Estacado , commonly known as the Staked Plains, is a region in the Southwestern United States that encompasses parts of eastern New Mexico and northwestern Texas, including the South Plains and parts of the Texas Panhandle...
  
  

• Lucianosaurus
  Lucianosaurus
  Lucianosaurus was an archosauriform genus of unknown affinities, initially described as a basal ornithischian dinosaur, and known only from teeth. It was found in Late Triassic strata in Eastern New Mexico, United States. The generic name refers to Luciano Mesa where the fossil remains were found....
  
  
• Mescalero Escarpment
  Mescalero Escarpment
  The Mescalero Escarpment, also known as the Mescalero Ridge, forms the western edge of the great Llano Estacado, a vast plateau or tableland in the southwestern United States in New Mexico and Texas...
  
  
• Pecos River
  Pecos River
  The headwaters of the Pecos River are located north of Pecos, New Mexico, United States, at an elevation of over 12,000 feet on the western slope of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range in Mora County. The river flows for through the eastern portion of that state and neighboring Texas before it...
  
  
• Route 66
  U.S. Route 66
  U.S. Route 66 was a highway within the U.S. Highway System. One of the original U.S. highways, Route 66 was established on November 11, 1926 -- with road signs erected the following year...