The Cookes Range (Cooke's Range, Cooks Range or Cook's Range) is a small, 17-mi (27 km) long mountain range in northern

Luna County Luna County is a List of counties in New Mexico, county located in the U.S. state of New Mexico. As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, the population was 25,095. Its county seat is Deming, New Mexico, Deming. This county abuts the M ...

, New Mexico, which extends slightly north into southeastern Grant County. The range is a southern continuation of the Mimbres Mountains, itself the southeast portion of the extensive north–south running

Black Range Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

. The Cookes Range is surrounded by lower elevation areas of the northwest Chihuahuan Desert.

Description

Cookes Range is about 17 mi long, and about 8 mi at its widest. The range is a

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 ...

north-south trending uplift with a center-north section intruded by granodiorite which forms Cookes Peak, . Cookes Peak is at the head of OK Canyon, which exits the range eastwards. South of OK Canyon is a transverse ridgeline, across the range west to east, named Rattlesnake Ridge. One other larger peak occurs in the mountains and hills in the southern part of the range, Massacre Peak, at . Other outlying lower elevation hills occur, east and west, in the north section, as the Cookes Range merges into the lower elevations of the Mimbres Mountains section of the Black Range.

History

The range was named after its prominent peak, which in turn was named after Captain Philip St. George Cooke of the Mormon Battalion. Cookes Spring was a station on the

Butterfield Trail Butterfield Overland Mail (officially the Overland Mail Company)Waterman L. Ormsby, edited by Lyle H. Wright and Josephine M. Bynum, "The Butterfield Overland Mail", The Huntington Library, San Marino, California, 1991. was a stagecoach service i ...

. Fort Cummings (1863–1873, 1880–1886), located in the southeastern foothills of the range near Cookes Spring was established to restrict Mimbreño Apache raiding. Silver was discovered in the range north of Cooks Peak in 1876, and the Cooks Peak Mining District was established in 1880. Silver, lead, and zinc were mined there until 1967.

Environment and ecology

The higher elevations of the range are pinon-juniper shrublands habitat which gives way to Chihuahuan desert in the foothills. The

Cookes Range Wilderness Study Area Cookes is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Thomas Cookes (MP) (1804–1900), British politician *Sir Thomas Cookes, 2nd Baronet (bap. 1648–1701), English philanthropist *Cookes baronets See also *Cooks (surname) *Cooke Coo ...

is located in the range.

References

External links

Peaks

Cookes Range

*
NMBGMR, Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources, Cookes Peak, Cookes Range, maps & photo gallery
Mountain ranges of New Mexico Landforms of Luna County, New Mexico Mountain ranges of Grant County, New Mexico {{NewMexico-geo-stub