The New Mexico Bootheel is a salient (protrusion) which comprises the southwestern corner of

New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...

. As part of the

Gadsden Purchase The Gadsden Purchase ( "La Mesilla sale") is a region of present-day southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico that the United States acquired from Mexico by the Treaty of Mesilla, which took effect on June 8, 1854. The purchase included lan ...

it is bounded on the east by the Mexican state of Chihuahua along a line at extending south to latitude 31°20′0″N at . The southern border is shared between the Mexican states of Chihuahua and

Sonora Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora (), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is divided into Municipalities of Sonora, 72 ...

along latitude 31°20′0″N, while the western border with

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

is along meridian 109°03′0″W at , bounding an area of and comprising . New Mexico bootheel topo v1

It is characterized by

basin and range Basin and range topography is characterized by alternating parallel mountain ranges and valleys. It is a result of crustal extension due to mantle upwelling, gravitational collapse, crustal thickening, or relaxation of confining stresses. The e ...

topography with three north south trending mountain ranges, the Peloncillo Mountains, the Animas Mountains, and the Big Hatchet Mountains, separated by four valleys, the San Simon, Animas, Playas, and Hachita valleys. A single road traverses just north of the bootheel, New Mexico State Road 9, while

New Mexico State Road 80 State Road 80 (NM 80) is north–south state road in southwestern New Mexico, between the Arizona state line near Rodeo and Interstate 10 (I-10) at Road Forks. Lying entirely within Hidalgo County, New Mexico, it is the only section of ...

(former US-80) skirts the western edge running south through the San Simon Valley. The other two roads in the bootheel are State Road 338 running down Animas Valley and State Road 81 running from Hachita to

Antelope Wells Antelope Wells Border Station in 2019 Antelope Wells is a small unincorporated community in Hidalgo County, New Mexico, United States. The community is located along the Mexico-United States border, in the New Mexico Bootheel region, located a ...

, a border crossing. The Bootheel is a sparsely populated (less than 1 person per square mile or 2.6 km²) region known primarily as a

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are calle ...

-ranching area, with the best-known ranch being the Diamond A Ranch in the Animas Valley, although mining also played a part in the development of the bootheel with the abandoned mining town of old Hachita. Land ownership is divided between publicly owned state and federal lands covering much of the mountain ranges and private lands in the valleys. The only settlement is

, while the towns of

Rodeo Rodeo () is a competitive equestrian sport that arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain and Mexico, expanding throughout the Americas and to other nations. It was originally based on the skills required of the working vaqu ...

, Animas, and Hachita lie just to the northwest, north, and northeast respectively. The former

Phelps Dodge Phelps Dodge Corporation was an American mining company founded in 1834 as an import-export firm by Anson Greene Phelps and his two sons-in-law William Earle Dodge, Sr. and Daniel James. The latter two ran Phelps, James & Co., the part of the ...

mining town of Playas is now a training facility for the

United States Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the Interior minister, interior, Home Secretary ...

References

{{American panhandles Chihuahuan Desert Border irregularities of the United States Geography of New Mexico Geography of Hidalgo County, New Mexico

See also

References