Sacramento Mountains

Sacramento Mountains. . The series of hills immediately to the northeast are the Godfrey Hills. The mountains beyond are part of the Lincoln National Forests White Mountain Wilderness. It provides opportunities for camping, hiking, and backpacking in cool pinyon, juniper, aspen, and pine forests. It is home to a diversity of plant and animal life, including deer, elk, mountain lion, and bear. Much of the eastern view consists of lands on the Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation, which includes the north portion of the Sacramento Mountains and the prominent peak called Sierra Blanca., Sierra Blanca means "White Mountain." The elevation at its summit is 11,973 feet. The Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation encompasses 738 square miles--just a fraction of the traditional territory occupied by the nomadic Apache bands. Also nestled high in the Sacramento Mountains are historic mining villages and modern resorts such as Ruidoso and Cloudcroft. The Sacramento Mountain chain stretches some 60 miles, forming the northeastern edge of the Tularosa Basin. Thirty miles to the south of Three Rivers, the west face of the Sacramento Mountains, known as the Sacramento Escarpment, forms a stunning back-drop for the city of Alamogordo., Permanent streams and intermittent arroyos carry fresh spring and rain water from the mountain canyons to the Tularosa Basin. Most of the water quickly disappears underground, or is completely used for human consumption and agriculture. In wetter prehistoric times, some of the arroyos which now only run after heavy rains may have been year-round streams. Between the years of about AD 1000 and AD 1400, Indian farming villages existed along each of the major streams. Then, for reasons still not fully understood, the villages were abandoned. For many years, researchers assumed that a serious drought, disease, or warfare caused these farmers to leave their fields and villages. It may have been a combination of factors., Like the Indian villages which preceded them, the relatively recent settlements of Tularosa (red reed), La Luz (the light); and Alamogordo (fat cottonwood) were built in locations to take advantage of water run-off from the mountains. Some of the earliest engineering feats of the first non-Native American settlers were miles and miles of pipeline to carry water from the mountains to the valley floor. This enabled the railroad to be built, which in turn encouraged further settlement.