Льяно Эстакадо: История, География и Экономика Равнины С Колышками

The Llano Estacado (ˈʝano estaˈkaðo), sometimes translated into English as the Staked Plains, is a region in the Southwestern United States that encompasses parts of eastern New Mexico and northwestern Texas. One of the largest mesas or tablelands on the North American continent,

The Spanish name Llano Estacado is often interpreted as meaning "Staked Plains", although "stockaded" or "palisaded plains" have also been proposed, in which case the name would derive from the steep escarpments on the eastern, northern, and western periphery of the plains. Leatherwood writes that Francisco Coronado and other European explorers described the Mescalero Ridge on the western boundary as resembling "palisades, ramparts, or stockades" of a fort, but does not present the original Spanish. In Beyond the Mississippi (1867), Albert D. Richardson, who traversed the region from east to west in October 1859, wrote that "the ancient Mexicans marked a route with stakes over this vast desert, and hence its name." Other sources refer to "stakes" used to mark routes on the featureless plain, often meaning piles of stone, bone, and cow dung. According to Place Names of New Mexico, others have speculated that "stakes" refers to the yucca plants that dot the plains. Leatherwood opines in the Handbook of Texas that such way markers could plausibly explain the origin of the name, but that the "comparison of cliff formations and palisades made by explorers argues more convincingly for the geological origin". In his Roadside Geology of Texas, Geologist Darwin Spearing also prefers the geological solution to the etymology:

The Ogallala Formation is a wedge of sediments built up eastward of the Rocky Mountains as they were uplifted in the Miocene, with the consequent alluvial fans referred to as the "Gangplank".

The economy of the Llano Estacado is predominantly agricultural, with farming of various crops prevalent, as is cattle ranching. Oil and gas production is also prevalent on the Llano Estacado. Overuse of the aquifer in the past has persuaded some farmers to return to dryland crops, leading to less rainwater reaching the playas. "Cotton, grain sorghum, corn, wheat, peanuts, sunflowers, grapes, vegetables, and cattle produced in the region literally go around the world. Their economic impact on our area is in the billions of dollars and the availability of water is a key factor influencing the region's agribusiness economy." One of the largest economic drivers on the Llano Estacado is in energy production, with the region experiencing significant activity for producing oil and natural gas associated with the Permian Basin. Additionally, solar and wind farms have proliferated on the Llano Estacado due to the region's dry and windy climate making it a favorable location for the production of renewable energy.

The 2020 song "West Texas In My Eye" by The Panhandlers features the lyrics, "Where the Llano Estacado rises up to meet the sky/I ain't crying, that's West Texas in my eye." María Dolores Gonzales wrote a creative nonfiction memoir about her time in Llano Estacado, called Atop the Windmill: I Could See Forever. The region is mentioned in the song “Sweet Amarillo” by the band Old Crow Medicine Show. Several works of German author Karl May are set in the Llano Estacado, although the area is described as a sand desert, featuring large stakes marking safe routes. Recurrent dramatic subplots revolve around highwaymen reinstalling some sections of stakes, so the detour would abruptly end in the deep desert, and mislead travelers would run out of water, getting weak, sick or even dead, and eventually making an easy prey.