User:Museumsmithc

After a day's work I've lost what I was sending apparently? I was trying to comply with your requested changes but after completing all I was unable to forward and when I exited your system I'm pretty sure everything was lost. However, I did save it in Word (attached). Please help me continue as you said you needed a write up on The Mescalero Sands National Natural Landmark. I helped establish the site from 1961-1980 and all that research is included.

Mescalero Sands National Natural Landmark 

The Mescalero Sands of New Mexico were established in 1982, as the National Natural Landmark known as the Mescalero Sands South Dune, consisting of a dune field with three large mobile dunes separated by a vast oak forest of "shinnery" visible from Mescalero Point at the edge of the Mescalero Ridge escarpment delineating the Llano Estacado or "Staked Plains" at the southwestern edge of the Great High Plains from the Querecho Plains and the Pecos River valley in southeastern New Mexico. Calvin B. Smith worked with the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, the Bureau of Land Management, the New Mexico Wildlife Conservation Association, the New Mexico Academy of Sciences and Eastern New Mexico University for 14 years to get the pristine sand biome known as the Mescalero Sands set aside as a protected research/resource environment. One of his goals was to determine if an isolated population of white-tailed deer were a unique sub-species. Surveys revealed there were only about 30 remaining in their habitat and were declining. It was not until the early 1980’s that the ONA designation was achieved and by this time, this population of white-tailed deer was doomed to extinction. One small lizard, Sceloporus arenicolus, because of its endangerment from the petroleum exploration and production in the region was the deciding factor in creating the preserve.

Contents: The Setting Physiography Geology Natural History Archaeology History Ecology In Search of Justification In Pursuit of an ONA Epilogue: Still Seeking the Answers

Prologue: The Setting

Beginning in 1961 Calvin B. Smith began an extensive reconnaissance of the Mescalero Sands of New Mexico. The Mescalero Sands National Natural Landmark [1] lies just below the western edge of the Llano Estacado known as Mescalero Ridge, locally called "The Caprock". U. S. Highway 380 bisects this sandy region located midway between Roswell and Tatum, New Mexico. The most outstanding physiological feature from Mescalero Point, 4,511 feet above sea level are three very light colored mobile dunes named the Mescalero Sands by early pioneers and travelers through the area. The dune field is located 10 miles west of the small combination Post Office and general store of Caprock, New Mexico and from 6 to 10 miles south of U. S. 380 [9]. A separate mobile dune field is located just south of U. S. 380, 36 miles east of Roswell, New Mexico is open for All Terrain Vehicles (ATV's). The 610 acre recreational area designated by the Bureau of Land Management as the Mescalero Sands North Dune Off Highway Vehicles (OHV) Area [2].

The Physiography of the Landmark

The three main dunes are located at the extreme northern limits of the Chihuahuan Desert and peripheral grasslands environment of the southern end of the Great High Plains making it ideal for ecotonal studies [2]. The climate is typically semi-arid but influenced by both the Upper and Lower Sonoran vegetative groups with mesquite, creosote bush and occasional juniper with dominant "Quercus harvardii", called shin oak or shinnery, surrounding and separating the dune fields. The rainfall averages 15 inches a year and 200 days without a killing frost from April to October. The potential evaporation can reach 33 inches per year considering the 60-70 percent of sunshine. Temperatures are generally mild but can range from 110 to minus 25 degrees Fahrenheit [15].

The Geology of the Landmark

From Mescalero Point to the base of Mescalero Ridge the escarpment drops off steeply to 4,200 feet or about 300 feet to the sandy environments. There is a slight downward topographic change westward to the Pecos River approximately 40 miles away with a channel altitude of 3,600 feet at this point in its drainage. The escarpment is essentially composed of the Dockum-Lykins formation of the Upper Triassic and is overlaid by the Ogallala formation which is of a limestone composition commonly referred to as caliche which is of Pliocene age. There are Permian outcrops in the breaks around the Pecos River but the sandy regions are from Quaternary origins composed of Pleistocene and Altithermal period Aeolian deposits created during the Altithermal some 7,500 years ago. Unlike the White Sands National Monument to the west of Alamogordo, New Mexico which are composed of gypsum, the Mescalero Sands are fine grain quartz attributed to the Monahans deposition. They overlay the Judkin formation of the mid-Wisconsin glaciation some 18-20,000 years ago and are from lake beds that have been dated from snail samples to approximately 13,000 years ago [16].

The Natural History of the Landmark

The oak forest of shin-high "Quercus harvardii" stabilizes most of the dune field with only a few mobile dunes which, due to the prevailing southwesterly winds move up to ten feet a year to the northeast. The dunes themselves are normally Barcan in form, reaching heights of 60-70 feet, but as they move perpendicular to the winds they become lenticular in shape. Being just above the alluvium, moisture bearing strata, there are a few seep springs within the three main dunes and windmills are pumping water from 35-65 feet deep. There were many springs at the base of the escarpment during the historic settlement period at the turn of the 20th century and best known was Mescalero Springs which supplied ample water for large herds of cattle and horses, but they rarely flow currently. The springs and atmospheric moisture running away from the escarpment never reach the Pecos River, with the sand serving as an entrapment thus all water percolates into shallow sub-surface catchment basins. The wetness within the sands may also contribute to the vast quantities of fulgurite found in the mobile dunes. Often called "petrified lightning" these tubes of glass are formed when lightning strikes the sand [13].

The Archaeology of the Landmark

The earliest evidence of humans occupying the region is from the Clovis-Folsom Paleo period from 13-11,500 years ago. Although there are remains of mammoths eroding out of the Judkin "hardpan" three miles south of the south dune and fragments of one at the edge of the remnant lakebed in the south dune there is no evidence of direct association with humans. There was, however the base of a Folsom Point found in the center dune. It is believed that the lakebed(s) forming the three main dunes were still active until the end of the Pleistocene or at the boundary of the Holocene [12].

The Archaic Period appears to have been temporary occupations from the west and south with few concentrations representing the early Holocene up to the Formative Stage when large amounts of arrow points, pottery and tools are common on the surface throughout the immediate area. Several middens have also been surveyed and reported just below the escarpment mostly to the south. There is also evidence of later Native American cultures such as Comanches and Apaches utilizing the Llano Estacado and the edge habitat the sands offered in alternative resources [13].

The History of the Landmark

The first European contact was during the Spanish Colonial Period from early 1600's through the early 1700's when "Pearlers" made treks from Santa Fe down the Pecos River to lower Bosque Grande where the Sacramento River (now the Rio Penasco) flows into the Pecos River they then cut across the sands to the escarpment with fresh water and onto the treeless and waterless "Staked Plains" on over to the eastern edge of the Llano Estacado and down to Tobacco Creek ending up on the Concho River where they collected freshwater pink to purple pearls, one of the few treasures they were able to send back to Spain [13].

The southern end of the western escarpment was described by Captain C. L. Taplin in March, 1854, who was assistant to Captain John Pope who was in command of exploring the southern route for the Pacific Railroad Survey. He found the travel extremely difficult discouraging any further wagon or rail passage through the area and early maps indicated, "Void of Wood and Water" that prevented homestead settlement in the region for many years. Lieutenant Colonel William Shafter entered the area in 1875 in an attempt to push the Apaches onto the reservation in the Sacramento Mountains and discovered "Dug Springs" where indigenous people had dug out several springs as well as Monument Springs where there was a natural flowing spring both at the southern edge of the escarpment [10].

The first permanent resident of the Mescalero Sands was a buffalo hunter named George Causey. He had built a house in Yellowhouse Canyon west of present day Lubbock, Texas and established a camp at the springs near Ranger Lake north of present day Tatum, New Mexico but sold out to the Littlefield Ranch and he and his brother John built a way station just north and below Mescalero Point as a stopover and resting location for freighters transporting goods from the nearest railhead in Midland, Texas to Roswell, New Mexico. Another prominent figure in the settlement of the Mescalero Sands was a character called "Old Man Harry", an English sailor who jumped ship and swam to Padre Island, Texas and made his way up to the LFD (Littlefield) Ranch and eventually established a herd of his own and built a rock house east of the south dune at the base of the escarpment just south of Mescalero Springs. He was remembered for having the only phonograph in the area before he was buried just north of his house where the marker reads: "AT REST HARRY ROBINSON BORN KENT CO ENGLAND JAN 9 1836 DIED AUG 3 1911 Out of Sight but Memory Never". Another one of the original Anglo settlers was Clyde Browning, who moved to just below the escarpment as a child when his father homesteaded in the 1880's south of Old Man Harry's place. He became a valuable resource for this story and told the author that, "if it had not been for the deer that hung out in the three main dunes they would have probably starved out" [17].

Just after the turn of the 20th century "nesters" began to take advantage of the strips of free government land that were found between the larger ranches, often under the protest of gunfire. One of these homesteaders was a man by the name of Lon Levi who in the 1920's lived in a dugout on the east side of the north dune. He plowed a field and planted subsistence crops which included watermelons. Some of his farming equipment that remained consisted of a planter and a rake which perpetuated the erroneous story that a wagon train had been attacked by Indians because of the quantity of flint "arrowheads" that had been found in the hollows or "blowouts" adjacent to the field. Although a motorized vehicle got stuck between the Causey way station and Roswell and the occupants had to be rescued, there is no verifiable evidence of a wagon train being endangered in the area [13].

Near the old field the last of an elk herd that had been brought in by Joe Lane who owned the Four Lakes Ranch northwest of Tatum had escaped their compound and made their way down into the sands in the late 1940's and survived until the 1960's when the last old cow was killed. She had been feeding with the cattle and was shot and left by poachers and the antlers of the last bull were at the Culp Ranch just east of the north dune [7].

The Ecology of the Landmark

The first time the author entered the three main dunes was in 1961 and he began to take 35mm slides using an Argus C-3 Matchmatic with 25 ASA film of the environs, the cultural and natural elements of this unique area which both surprised and lured him into the distinctive expanse time after time. He began to see the Sandhill Whitetailed deer that were often referred to as "midgets" but he found them to be comparable in size to the Texas Whitetail that he had hunted, in fact some of the bucks appeared to be larger than typical "Odocoileus virginianus texanus" but smaller than the Plains Whitetail "O.v. macrourus". He found that Vernon Bailey, a prominent naturalist of the early 20th century, believed them to be Plains whitetails and saw their survival questionable due to the numbers being taken by the settlers in the region [1 & 3]. J. Stokley Ligon an early conservationist in New Mexico in his 1927 book, "Wildlife of New Mexico" found them ranging from Blackwater Draw between Portales and Clovis, New Mexico all the way down to the Monahans Sands in Texas but also thought them to be isolated enough in both time and space to be considered unique [8]. By 1943-44, H. Ernest Hall compiled a report entitled, "Sandhill White-tailed Deer Restoration" for the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish wherein he found only two remaining herds split by U. S. Highway 380 with not more than 30 individuals in each herd [5].

In 1964 the author found his "white whale" that Ahab had pursued in "Moby Dick" which was a complete skull with the antlers attached buried in the north dune. The challenge was to determine if these deer were in fact an undefined sub-species and to approach the question through the scientific method he would have to know a lot more about their environment. He began by placing several nine-foot galvanized stakes marked in alternate red and white one inch intervals in specific locations in and around the north dune. The resulting evidence showed that the shinnery was holding the sands in place but that the entire north dune was moving up to ten feet a year to the northeast due to the prevailing southwesterly winds. He and a colleague, Dr. Roy Blizzard, hauled a 55 gallon drum a mile into the north dune that had both ends cut out but with a removable lid and calibrated in one inch intervals on the inside to show groundwater fluctuation in a seep spring in the north dune. Unfortunately, it was covered by a sand dune and never found again. An accumulative rain gage was placed on an abandoned windmill tower on the west side of the south dune but was destroyed by vandals [13].

The author was greatly encouraged in observing the deer he discovered they had several morphological variations between the Texas species and those living in the Mescalero Sands. The latter were much lighter in color throughout the year with only dark patches between the eyes, on the chest and on the outside tip of the tail in difference to the "texanus" which had much darker pelage and larger dark spots in each of the same locations. However, that alone was not enough to determine sub-speciation. So, it was decided that the most sensible approach would be to try to trap some specimens and record more specific data and attach easily identifiable collars on them in order to observe behavioral characteristics [14].

In Search of Justification

During the summer of 1967 the author and his wife, Shirley East-Smith, spent the three months on the northwest corner of the north dune in order to gather an ecological accounting of the multiple habitats within the biome. They collected 183 reptiles, 53 mammals, over 100 plants, many insects and recorded numerous bird species all of which are in the natural history collections at Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, New Mexico where they both received their Master's degrees [13].

Another survey was also initiated during this same period to determine if different portions of the north dune were utilized by diverse indigenous peoples through time. Sequentially numbered wooden stakes were placed in adjoining blowouts with all lithics, pottery and ground stone being recorded revealing that certain areas were indeed being occupied by dissimilar groups at different times. As a result of this research showing that a non-structural site can be used for archaeological interpretations the Mescalero Sands were placed on the State Register, "giving public recognition to the cultural value of the property aiding in protection against destruction by certain State and Federal programs of construction" [13].

By the end of the study it was evident that there were only about two dozen deer south of U. S. 380 and probably only a dozen north of the highway. It was also confirmed that mule deer, "Odocoileus hemionus" were beginning to move into the region having already been taken during hunting season on the southern end of Mescalero Ridge which as they moved north certainly would be a threat to the whitetail population [11].

In Pursuit of an ONA

On January 1, 1968 the author rode into the area on horseback and found where approximately ten deer were feeding on the wild watermelons that had evolved from Lon Levi's plantings in the 1920's. About a dozen shed antlers had been collected in and around the old field and Walter Rogers, a predator control officer for the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, had told the author that they were commonly found there during the winter months depending on the melons as a food source. The author approached the regional conservation officer, John Mechler, about borrowing some of the department's Thompson type deer traps that could be used to capture and release the deer but he and others warned me that it was probably an effort in futility because of the whitetail's cautious behavior [13].

Due to unforeseen circumstances the five traps were not delivered until the 28th of December of 1968 and after recognizing that the deer would not enter the trap unless all the excess melons were removed from the old field with the help of Sam McCallum removed all of the melons except those being used as bait. Even then found where the deer had dug out melons that had been covered by the constantly moving sand, the author began to cut off a portion of one of the melons and wipe down the trap and his tracks before finally capturing a buck with secure antlers on January 12, 1969. Using 10 milligrams of a muscle relaxant, sucostrin (succinylcholine chloride) administered by a Cap-Chur CO2 powered pistol, the buck could be safely handled in 5 minutes and after many measurements and blood samples taken, a neck collar affixed, a numbered metal tag placed in his ear, he regained his faculties and exited the field exactly one hour after being injected with the drug [13].

Unfortunately, the buck was later found by seeing his collar in an aerial survey but after investigating he was too mutilated to determine cause of death and probably died around April which ruled out the possibility of a blood disease, black leg, which usually occurs within two weeks of blood samples being taken. During the next season dune-buggy enthusiasts kept the deer out of the area almost continuously but after a determined effort the second buck was captured on January 25, 1970. He had lost his antlers and was immobile 10 minutes less than the one previously using the same dosage. The same procedure for taking tests was followed but this was before DNA analysis had been developed and the electrophoresis available to the University was not adequate to distinguish sub-speciation. Both deer, by using live tooth analysis would have been 8-10 years old, but aided with the skull of the first buck the teeth showed an excessive amount of abrasion due to the sand accumulated in their diet so both were probably considerably younger. The second buck was observed by plane two, three and a little more than four weeks after his capture and release [6].

Epilogue: Still seeking the answers

During the 1800's and early 1900's a wave of new species were identified based on taxonomic characteristics alone but there was a concern that there had been an oversimplification of the differences, however with the advent of recent serological methods and techniques it has been shown that most of the original classifications were sound. Unfortunately, it was too late for the author to publish on the Whitetail Deer as, “O. v. arenarius" (sand loving) by the time the Bureau of Land Management, with encouragement of the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, the New Mexico Wildlife and Conservation Association, the New Mexico Academy of Science and Eastern New Mexico University, deemed it suitable as an Outstanding Natural Area (ONA). By then the whitetail deer north of U. S. 380 were essentially hunted out and only a few had been seen in the late 1970’s in the Mescalero Sands and only mule deer in the 1980’s which are currently plentiful in the region [4].

It was a small lizard, which had been taken during the summer of 1967, that helped establish the 6,293 acre preserve, now accessible only by foot or horseback and secure the dune’s permanency for future generations. The Dunes Sagebrush Lizard “Sceloporus arenicolus”, (occurring, burrowing or inhabiting in sand) was declared threatened by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service with a great deal of pressure from numerous conservation societies and organizations but has been pulled from the list until further research on the species can be conducted [3]

The three main dunes were declared a National Natural Landmark in 1982, as “The best example of an active sand dune system in the southern Great Plains”.

Reverences

1. Bailey, Vernon. 1931. Mammals of New Mexico, North American Fauna, No. 53, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Biological Survey, U.S. Government Printing Office, 412 pp.

2. Bailey, Vernon. 1913. Life Zones and Crop Zones of New Mexico, North American Fauna, No. 35, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Biological Survey, U.S. Government Printing Office, 100 pp.

3. Bailey, Vernon. 1905. Biological Survey of Texas, No. 25, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Biological Survey, U.S. Government Printing Office, 262 pp.

4. Findley, James S., Arthur H. Harris, Don E. Wilson and Clyde Jones. 1975. Mammals of New Mexico, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 360 pp.

5. Hall, H. Ernest. 1944. “Sandhill White-tailed Deer Restoration”, Project Record Report, New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, Santa Fe, New Mexico

6. Hibler, Charles. 1969. Personal communication, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado

7. Johnson, Carl Lane. 1969. Personal communication, Tatum, New Mexico

8. Ligon, J. Stokley. 1927. Wildlife of New Mexico Its Conservation and Management, New Mexico State Game Commission, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 212 pp.

9. Oetking, P., H. B. Renfro, D. E. Feray and A. P. Bennison. 1967. Geological Highway Maps for the Regions: Great Plains, Mid-Continent and Texas, USGS Map Series No. 2, Tulsa, Oklahoma

10. Pope, Capt. John. 1854. Route Near the Thirty-Second Parallel, From the Red River to the Rio Grande, Explored by Bvt. Capt. John Pope, Top. Engineers, in 1854, 52 pp.

11. Rogers, Walter. 1968. Personal communication, Portales, New Mexico

12. Smith, Calvin B. 1966. The Paleo-Indian in Southeastern New Mexico, Transactions of the Second Regional Archaeological Symposium for Southeastern New Mexico and Western Texas, Special Bulletin No. 1, Midland Archaeological Society, Midland, Texas, pp. 3-8

13. a.) Smith, Calvin B. 1971. Mescalero Sands Natural Studies Plan, Natural History Museum and the Paleo-Indian Institute, Eastern New Mexico University, 50 pp. 13. b.) Smith, Calvin B. 1971. Proposed Study Area in the Mescalero Sands, Southeastern New Mexico, The New Mexico Academy of Science Bulletin, Vol. 12, No. 2, Santa Fe, New Mexico, pp. 19-20 13. c.) Smith, Calvin B. 1985. To Save A Dune, The Greater Llano Estacado Southwest Heritage, Vol. 14, No. 1, Hobbs, New Mexico, pp. 5-3, 12 and 19

14. Taylor, Walter P. 1965. The Deer of North America, The Wildlife Management Institute, Washington D. C., 668 pp.

15. Tuan, Yi-fu, Cyril E. Everard and Jerold G. Widdison. 1969. The Climate of New Mexico, State Planning Office, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 169 pp.

16. Wendorf, Fred, Alex D. Krieger, Claude C. Albritton and T. D. Stewart. 1955. The Midland Discovery: A Report on the Pleistocene Human Remains from Midland, Texas, University of Texas Press, Austin, Texas 139 pp.

17. Whitlock, Vivian. 1970. Cowboy Life on the Llano Estacado, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Oklahoma, 320 pp.

External links

National Park Service 1982 “Mescalero Sands South Dune”, National Natural Landmarks, https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nnlandmarks/site.htm?Site=MESA-NM

Bureau of Land Management 2020 "Mescalero Sands North Dune OHV Area" https://www.blm.gov/visit/mescalero-sands-north-dune-ohv-area

Biological Diversity 2011 "Dunes Sagebrush Lizard" https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/reptiles/dunes_sagebrush_lizard/index.html Museumsmithc (talk) 19:23, 27 July 2020 (UTC)