The Capitan Mountains are a
mountain range
A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have aris ...
in
Lincoln County, in south-central
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 range is about 20 miles (32 km) long from east to west being about 6 miles (10 km) wide and were formed from a large elongated
granite
Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...
intrusion similar to the round one that produced Carrizo Mountain to the west.
The small town of
Capitan
Capitan and Kapitan are equivalents of the English Captain in other European languages.
Capitan, Capitano, and Kapitan may also refer to:
Places in the United States
* Capitan, Louisiana, an unincorporated community
* Capitan, New Mexico, a villa ...
is on the southwestern side of the mountain and is the location of
Smokey Bear
Smokey Bear is an American campaign and advertising icon of the United States Forest Service, U.S. Forest Service in the Wildfire Prevention Campaign, which is the longest-running public service announcement campaign in United States history to ...
Historical Park. This is the park that memorializes the famous bear that was rescued from the
Capitan Gap Fire in the Capitan Mountains. The highest point in the range is an unnamed peak reaching 10,201 feet (3139 m) which is 118 feet (36 m) higher than Capitan Peak. The entirety of the range lies within
Lincoln National Forest
Lincoln National Forest is a unit of the U.S. Forest Service located in southern New Mexico. The Lincoln National Forest covers an extensive 1.1 million acres in southeastern New Mexico. Established by Presidential Proclamation in 1902 as the Li ...
and is separated from the
Sacramento Mountains to the south and
Sierra Blanca to the southwest by the valley of Rio Bonito.
External links
Smokey Bear Historical Park
Mountain ranges of New Mexico
Mountain ranges of Lincoln County, New Mexico
Smokey Bear
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