Қара Mesa: Тарихы, геологиясы және фаунасы

Mesa in the U. S. States of Colorado, New Mexico, and Oklahoma

The plateau has been home to Plains Indians. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century the area was a hideout for outlaws such as William Coe and Black Jack Ketchum. The outlaws built a fort known as the Robbers' Roost. The stone fort housed a blacksmith shop, gun ports, and a piano. The present day Oklahoma Panhandle area, which was then considered a no man's land, lacked law enforcement agencies and hence the outlaws found it safe to hide in the region. However, as new settlers arrived in the area for copper and coal mining and also for cattle ranching activities by grazing cattle in the mesa region, law enforcement became more effective, and the outlaws were brought under control.

The Mesa is situated in Cimarron County in the Oklahoma Panhandle. The Black Mesa plateau is part of the Rocky Mountains and the shortgrass prairie. and Devil's Tombstone. The mesa's base includes a 200 feet (61 m) escarpment which is parallel with the Dry Cimarron River's north bank. Its highest elevation is 5705 feet (1739 m) in Colorado. the Nature Conservancy recommends four hours minimum for a round trip; overnight camping is not permitted.

Black Mesa is not only the highest point in Oklahoma but it is also the driest, harshest and coldest place in the state. A nearby weather station is located in Kenton.

The visual and map view appearance of Black Mesa is as an "inverted valley" because erosion has removed the relatively soft sedimentary strata from either side of the resistant Raton basalt of the lava which originally had occupied and filled a river valley. The mesa is capped by erosion resistant basaltic lava formed by a volcanic eruption 3 to 5 million years ago. The lava erupted from a vent in the Raton Clayton volcanic field in northeastern New Mexico and southeastern Colorado. The volcanic cap to the mesa is 600 feet (183 m) thick, long and from 0.5 miles to 8 miles wide, which is to the north northwest of Oklahoma. Beginning in 1935, geologists and paleontologists have searched the mesa's outcroppings, finding dinosaur fossils in the Jurassic and Triassic strata. A large quantity of dinosaur bones has been recovered from the Black Mesa locale; totaling over eighteen tonnes. These remains were split between several species, including stegosaurus, camptosaurus, diplodocus, and edmontosaurus. Clear fossil physical evidence, a distinct line of footprints believed to have been made by an allosaurus, has been found juxtaposed with the Carrizo Creek, which runs around the modern day northern edge of the mesa. Black Mesa Nature Preserve in particular covers around 60% of the flat portion of the mesa in Oklahoma. Wildlife reported in the park and the reserve are golden eagles, piñon jays, red tailed hawks, and mule deer, part from a bird area for bird watchers. Other mammals include the dog like coyote,

Birds are common, and there are 59 species present during at least some years. Seven different raptors are found, the turkey vulture, American kestrel, golden eagle, ferruginous hawk, red tailed hawk, Mississippi kite, and the prairie falcon, all of which are classed as being of least concern according to the IUCN. There is one other bird of prey, the western screech owl. There are no waterfowl found on Black Mesa. The mourning dove, greater roadrunner, common nighthawk, common poorwill, ladder backed woodpecker, red shafted flicker, olive sided flycatcher, Say's phoebe, ash throated flycatcher, Cassin's kingbird, and western kingbird are also found. There are five corvids; the black billed magpie, pinyon jay, American crow, and common raven, as well as the more local Chihuahuan raven. 61 species of butterfly are found in the preserve, including seventeen skippers, three swallowtails, four hairstreaks, a copper, four whites, nine true brushfoots, two satyrs, and a leafwing.

A permanent exhibit in the Sam Noble Museum is a diorama of the Black Mesa. It covers and is housed in the Hall of Natural Wonders. Funds for its creation were provided by the Whitten Newman Foundation.