Townsend Point is a mountain

summit A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used only for ...

Brewster County, Texas Brewster County is a county (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Texas. It is in West Texas and its county seat (and only city) is Alpine, Texas, Alpine. It is one of the nine counties that comprise the Trans-Pecos region, and b ...

, United States.

Description

Townsend Point is located in the

Chisos Mountains The Chisos Mountains, also known as the Chisos, are a mountain range located in the Big Bend, Texas, Big Bend area of the Trans-Pecos region of Texas, United States. The mountain system covers 40 square miles (104 square km) and is contained enti ...

. It ranks as the second-highest peak in

Big Bend National Park Big Bend National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States located in West Texas, bordering Mexico. The park has national significance as the largest protected area of Chihuahuan Desert topograph ...

, Brewster County, and the Chisos Mountains, but only the 19th-highest in Texas. The mountain is composed of

extrusive Extrusive rock refers to the mode of igneous volcanic rock formation in which hot magma from inside the Earth flows out (extrudes) onto the surface as lava or explodes violently into the atmosphere to fall back as pyroclastics or tuff. In contr ...

volcanic rock Volcanic rocks (often shortened to volcanics in scientific contexts) are rocks formed from lava erupted from a volcano. Like all rock types, the concept of volcanic rock is artificial, and in nature volcanic rocks grade into hypabyssal and me ...

which formed during the

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch (geology), epoch of the Paleogene Geologic time scale, Period that extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that defin ...

period. The slopes of the peak are covered by juniper, oak, and piñon. Based on the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

, Townsend Point is located in a

hot arid climate The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk'') is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert ...

zone with hot summers and mild winters. Any scant precipitation runoff from the mountain's slopes drains into Fresno Creek and Juniper Draw which are both part of the

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( or ) in the United States or the Río Bravo (del Norte) in Mexico (), also known as Tó Ba'áadi in Navajo language, Navajo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the Southwestern United States a ...

watershed.

Topographic relief Terrain (), alternatively relief or topographical relief, is the dimension and shape of a given surface of land. In physical geography, terrain is the lay of the land. This is usually expressed in terms of the elevation, slope, and orientati ...

is significant as the summit rises 3,250 feet (990 m) above Juniper Canyon in . The mountain's toponym was officially adopted in 1981 by the

United States Board on Geographic Names The United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) is a Federal government of the United States, federal body operating under the United States Secretary of the Interior. The purpose of the board is to establish and maintain uniform usage of geogr ...

to remember Everett Ewing Townsend (1871–1948) who was responsible for founding Big Bend National Park.''The Father of Big Bend''
Jennette TImmer, The Big Bend Paisano, National Park Service, p. 5.

Gallery

File:Lost Mine Trail to Townsend Point.jpg, View from Lost Mine Trail with north aspect of Townsend Point in the distance. File:Townsend Point, Texas.jpg, Northwest aspect, from Emory Peak Trail

References

External links

* Townsend Point
Weather
* Everett Townsend photo (page 5)
National Park Service
* Everett Townsend story

{{Portal bar, Mountains, Geology, Geography, Texas Mountains of Texas Two-thousanders of the United States Landforms of Brewster County, Texas Big Bend National Park

Description

See also

Gallery

References

External links