Mount Taylor (New Mexico) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Mount Taylor
Tsoodził
Highest point
Elevation	11,305 ft (3,446 m) NAVD 88
Prominence	4,094 ft (1,248 m)
Geography
Mount Taylor Location in New Mexico
Location	Cibola County, New Mexico, U.S.
Parent range	San Mateo Mountains
Topo map	USGS Mount Taylor
Geology
Mountain type	Stratovolcano
Climbing
Easiest route	Hike

Mount Taylor, seen from the South

Map of Mount Taylor Volcanic Field in central New Mexico (modified from Crumpler, 1980).

Mount Taylor (Navajo: Tsoodził) is a dormant stratovolcano in northwest New Mexico, northeast of the town of Grants. It is the high point of the San Mateo Mountains and the highest point in the Cibola National Forest.

It was renamed in 1849 for then-president Zachary Taylor. Previously, it was called Cebolleta (tender onion) by the Spaniards; the name persists as one name for the northern portion of the San Mateo Mountains, a large mesa. The Navajo, for whom the mountain is sacred, still call it Turquoise Mountain (Tsoodził).

Mount Taylor is largely forested with some meadows, rising above the desert below. The mountain is heavily eroded to the east. Its slopes were an important source of lumber for neighboring pueblos.

Native American traditions

A view of Mount Taylor to the north from the west end of the Sky City of Acoma Pueblo.

A southwest view of Mount Taylor, as seen from the village of Encinal, NM.

To the Navajo people, Mount Taylor is Tsoodził, the blue bead mountain, one of the four sacred mountains marking the cardinal directions and the boundaries of the Dinetah, the traditional Navajo homeland. Mount Taylor marks the southern boundary, and is associated with the direction south and the color blue; it is gendered female. In Navajo mythology, First Man created the sacred mountains from soil from the Fourth World, together with sacred matter, as replicas of mountains from that world. He fastened Mount Taylor to the earth with a stone knife. The supernatural beings Black God, Turquoise Boy, and Turquoise Girl are said to reside on the mountain. Mount Taylor is also sacred to the Acoma, Hopi, Laguna and Zuni people.

Volcanology

Mount Taylor was active from 3.3 to 1.5 million years ago during the Pliocene, and is surrounded by a field of smaller inactive volcanoes. Repeated eruptions built lava domes and produced lava flows, ash plumes, and mudflows. The mountain is surrounded by a great volume of volcanic debris, suggesting multiple major eruptions, possibly similar to that of Mount Saint Helens and the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff, Arizona. Estimates vary about how high the mountain was at its highest. Conservative estimates place its maximum near a similar pre-explosion height for the San Francisco Peaks of 16,000 to 18,000 feet (4,900 to 5,500 m), and an extreme estimate places it near 25,000 feet (7,600 m).

Recreation

Mount Taylor is the site of the Mount Taylor Quadrathlon, an endurance event which has been held at this location for almost thirty years. The event includes running, skiing, bicycling and snowshoeing for 43 miles.

Wildlife

Mount Taylor and the surrounding area is home to large elk herds, mule deer, black bear, mountain lion and Merriam’s turkey. Bird species are particularly diverse in the area and include great blue heron, white-faced ibis, canvasback, common merganser, rough-legged hawk, red-tailed hawk, ferruginous hawk, sharp-shinned hawk, osprey, golden eagle, barn owl, great horned owl, and kestrel, whip-poor-will, white-throated swift, western kingbird, warbling vireo, western meadowlark, house finch, swifts, swallows, prairie falcon, gray-headed junco, Steller’s jay, and pinyon jay. Furthermore, the area offers excellent raptor-nesting habitat on the various cliffs that spill down into the Rio Puerco valley below.

Mining

Mount Taylor is very rich in a uranium-vanadium bearing mineral, and was mined extensively for it from 1979 to 1990. The Mount Taylor and the hundreds of other uranium mines on Pueblo lands have provided over thirteen million tons of uranium ore to the United States since 1945.

Concern has arisen regarding the impact of future mining activities on the site. In June 2008 the New Mexico Cultural Properties Review Committee voted in favor of a one-year emergency listing of more than 422,000 acres (171,000 ha) surrounding the mountain’s summit on the state Register of Cultural Properties. "The Navajo Nation, the Acoma, Laguna and Zuni pueblos, and the Hopi tribe of Arizona asked the state to approve the listing for a mountain they consider sacred to protect it from an anticipated uranium mining boom, according to the nomination report." In April 2009, Mount Taylor was added to the National Trust for Historic Preservation's list of America's Most Endangered Places.

Images for kids

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  Mount Taylor uranium mine, New Mexico.