Lake Lucero facts for kids
Lake Lucero is a special kind of dry lake, called a playa, found inside White Sands National Park in New Mexico. This lake is famous because its water, which comes and goes, has a lot of gypsum dissolved in it. Gypsum is a mineral that can be found in water or carried by the wind.
When the lake water dries up each year, the gypsum turns into brownish crystals called selenite. These crystals cover the muddy edges of the lake. Over time, these fragile selenite crystals break down. They turn into the pure white sand that makes up most of White Sands National Park.
Lake Lucero is in a part of the park called the Zone of Cooperative Use. Usually, people can't go there because the U.S. military uses the area for security reasons. However, the National Park Service sometimes offers guided tours. These tours let interested visitors briefly see the lake and the dry desert around it.
The closest towns where you can find places to stay and things to do are Las Cruces and Alamogordo. Main roads like U.S. Route 70 and U.S. Route 82 pass about five miles southeast of the lake. But you can't see the lake from these roads.
History of Lake Lucero
Lake Lucero got its name from two brothers, José and Felipe Lucero. In 1897, they bought a piece of land with water near the southern shore of the mostly dry lake. These brothers were also sheriffs in Doña Ana County.
They turned their small piece of land into a huge ranch, about 20,000-acre (8,100 ha) big. This dry land was large enough to support about 2,000 cattle. Later, the government bought this ranch. This land became part of the White Sands Missile Range in 1945. Today, this area is also used as the Zone of Cooperative Use within White Sands National Park.
Images for kids
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Selenite crystals
