Black Mesa (Apache-Navajo Counties, Arizona)

For the mesa only in Navajo County, see Black Mesa (Navajo County, Arizona).

Black Mesa (also called Big Mountain) is an upland mountainous mesa of Arizona, north-trending in Navajo County, west and southeast-trending in Apache County. In Navajo it is called Dziłíjiin ('Black Mountain') and during Mexican rule of Arizona it was called Mesa de las Vacas (Spanish for 'mesa of the cows').[1] It derives its dark appearance from its pinyon-juniper and mixed conifer woodlands.[2]

Satellite image of northeastern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico, including the Four Corners Monument (FC). Some higher elevations have a dust of snow. Labeled natural features are the Chuska Mountains (CM), the Carrizo Mountains (C), Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park (MV), Black Mesa (B), Canyon de Chelly National Monument (CdC), and the Defiance Uplift-(Plateau) (D). Labeled towns are Farmington, New Mexico (F), Gallup, New Mexico (G), Window Rock, Arizona (WR), and Kayenta, Arizona (K).
  1. ^ "The National Gazetteer of the United States of America; Arizona 1986". Professional Paper. 1987. doi:10.3133/pp1200az. ISSN 2330-7102.
  2. ^ LaRue, Charles T. (January 31, 1994), "Birds of Northern Black Mesa, Navajo County, Arizona", The Great Basin Naturalist, vol. 54, no. 1, Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University, pp. 1-xx, ISSN 0017-3614