The Black Range (also called the Devil's Mountains or Sierra Diablo) is an
igneous
Igneous rock ( ), or magmatic rock, is one of the three main rock types, the others being sedimentary and metamorphic. Igneous rocks are formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or lava.
The magma can be derived from partial ...
mountain range running north–south in
Sierra,
Grant, and
Catron counties in southwest
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 ...
, in the
Southwestern United States
The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural list of regions of the United States, region of the United States that includes Arizona and New Mexico, along with adjacen ...
.
Description
The range's central ridge forms the western and eastern borders, respectively, of the two counties through much of their contact. The range is about 55 miles (88 km) long from north to south and up to 18 miles (29 km) wide. The highest point is
McKnight Mountain. The Black Range lies almost entirely within the
Gila National Forest. The
Mimbres River originates from the mountain
snowpack
Snowpack is an accumulation of snow that compresses with time and melts seasonally, often at high elevation or high latitude. Snowpacks are an important water resource that feed streams and rivers as they melt, sometimes leading to flooding. Snow ...
. The Mimbres Mountains, the southernmost part of the range, are usually included as part of the Black Range.
[Ungnade, Herbert E. (1965) "Black Range" ''Guide to the New Mexico Mountains'' Sage Books, Denver, pp. 132–133]
Access to the range is primarily via
New Mexico State Road 152 (NM 152), which crosses the Black Range on its way from
Kingston
Kingston may refer to:
Places
* List of places called Kingston, including the six most populated:
** Kingston, Jamaica
** Kingston upon Hull, England
** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia
** Kingston, Ontario, Canada
** Kingston upon Thames, ...
on the east towards
San Lorenzo on the west. NM 152 crosses the range at 8,228-foot (2,508 m) Emory Pass, where there is a hiking trail that covers the entire length of the mountains along the central ridge. There are also a number of campgrounds, some with hiking trails, along NM 152 as it goes down Iron Canyon on the west side of the range. With the exception of the areas along NM 152, most of the range is very difficult to traverse and almost entirely undeveloped. The
Aldo Leopold Wilderness, in size, lies along the crest of the Black Range north of NM 152.
History
The southern portion of the Black Range, which are also known as the Mimbres Mountains, was occupied by the
Mimbres people whose culture peaked about 1000 C.E. and ended about 1150 C.E.
Their most famous site is the
Gila Cliff Dwellings. Silver was discovered in the Black Range in the late 1870s, first in 1876 at
Lake Valley,
[Charles R. Keyes, ''Genesis of the Lake Valley, New Mexico, silver deposits'', American Institute of Mining Engineers Bulletin, Jan 1908, p.3.] and then by
Harry Pye
Harry William Pye (born 31 August 1973) is a British artist, writer, and event organizer.
Early life
Pye was born in London. He completed a foundation course at Camberwell School of Art in 1991. He then studied printmaking at Winchester School ...
in 1879 at
Chloride
The term chloride refers to a compound or molecule that contains either a chlorine anion (), which is a negatively charged chlorine atom, or a non-charged chlorine atom covalently bonded to the rest of the molecule by a single bond (). The pr ...
.
[Abarr, James (14 June 1998]
"Frontier mining towns cling to life in southwestern New Mexico"
''Albuquerque Journal'' section I, p. 1[Twitchell, Ralph Emerson (1911) ''The Leading Facts of New Mexican History'' Torch Press, Cedar Rapids, Iowa]
p. 271–272OCLC 3828708
/ref> This led to a silver rush
A silver rush is the silver-mining equivalent of a gold rush, where the discovery of silver-bearing ore sparks a mass migration of individuals seeking wealth in the new mining region.
Notable silver rushes have taken place in Mexico, Chile, the U ...
,
See also
* List of mountain ranges of New Mexico
References
External links
{{authority control
Great Divide of North America
Mountain ranges of New Mexico
Mountain ranges of Sierra County, New Mexico
Mountain ranges of Grant County, New Mexico
Landforms of Catron County, New Mexico