2003 Most Endangered

Most Endangered Places in New Mexico 2003

• The Waters of New Mexico, Statewide
  
• St. Vrain Mill, Mora County
  
• The Gutierrez-Hubbell House, Bernalillo
  
• Chaco Culture National Historical Park, San Juan County
  
• La Bajada Mesa and Escarpment, Santa Fe
  
• New Mexico's Historic Earthen Architectural Tradition, Statewide
  
• Melvin W. Mills House, Colfax
  
• Tucumcari Metropolitan Park — 5 Mile Park, Quay
  
• New Mexico's Greater Otero Mesa Area, Otero
  
• Historic Roadside Markers of New Mexic, Statewide
  

New Mexico's Greater Otero Mesa Area, Otero

The federal part of Southern Otero County, 75 miles northeast of El Paso, Texas and 85 miles west of Carlsbad, New Mexico. It encompasses approximately 1.8 million acres, a large percentage of which is public land.

Significance: New Mexico's Greater Otero Mesa is culturally and historically important because certain areas within the Mesa are eligible for the National Register of Historic Places including Cornudas Mountain and Alamo Mountain. Both mountains lie along the Butterfield Trail and ruins of the Butterfield Trail Ojos de los Alamos State Station lie at the base of Alamo Mountain. There is also an extensive El Paso Phase Jornada Mogollon site with petroglyphs on the northwest face of Alamo Mountain.

Threat: The oil and gas industry has proposed drilling for oil and gas on over 250,000 acres of Otero Mesa. Currently the Bureau of Land Management is posed to release a Final Environmental Impact Statement for the area that could eventually allow full-scale oil & gas development to occur on the entire 1.8 million acres. Hundreds of miles of new road, power lines, pipelines, drill pads and toxic waster ponds would fragment the Greater Otero Mesa and forever destroy its wilderness potential and an irreplaceable piece of New Mexico's cultural heritage.