Rabbit Ear Mountain
New Mexico
The twin peaks north of Clayton were the only reliable promise of water for thirty miles of the Santa Fe Trail.
Wagon traffic on the Cimarron Cutoff steered by two low peaks that sit only a few hundred feet above the plains. They were visible from more than thirty miles out, especially coming from the east. That visibility mattered less than what they signaled. In that whole stretch, the Rabbit Ears were one of the few sure signs of water. Three creeks nearby ran hard in spring and kept giving water even after they stopped running full, and travelers camped along their banks. The camps moved a little each season depending on where the water was. Trail ruts are still visible in all three places. The peaks themselves are what's left of a single volcano, worn apart by erosion. The taller one reaches about six thousand feet. The name comes from a Native American chief who was killed here in a battle with the Spanish in seventeen seventeen.
Wayside reads this to you as you drive past, timed to arrive before the place does. Plan a route through here.
Rabbit Ear Mountain was a key landmark because it was a highly visible feature of the landscape for more than 30 miles (48 kilometers), and because it was one of the few signs of a sure water supply across that entire area.
Written from Wikipedia, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Nearby, on the same roads
- Clayton, New Mexico 8.7 mi When the outlaw Black Jack Ketchum was hanged in Clayton in 1901, the rope took his head off.
- Capulin Volcano National Monument 43.7 mi When Capulin erupted, the lava didn't come out the top — it leaked out a weak spot at the base called the boca.
- Dalhart Army Air Base 52.5 mi The only squadron that ever flew an atomic bombing mission trained on the flat land outside Dalhart, Texas.