Cookes Range

Cookes Range is about 17 mi long, and about 8 mi at its widest. The range is a basin and range north-south trending uplift with a center-north section intruded by granodiorite which forms Cookes Peak, {{convert|8408|ft|m|0|}}.{{Cite web|author=Kelley, Shari A.|date=14 September 2009|title=Cookes Peak|publisher=New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources|url=http://geoinfo.nmt.edu/tour/landmarks/cookes_peak/home.html|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100610191305/http://geoinfo.nmt.edu/tour/landmarks/cookes_peak/home.html|archivedate=10 June 2010|url-status=live}} Cookes Peak is at the head of OK Canyon, which exits the range eastwards.New Mexico Atlas & Gazetteer, p. 45. South of OK Canyon is a transverse ridgeline, across the range west to east, named Rattlesnake Ridge. One other larger peak occurs in the mountains and hills in the southern part of the range, Massacre Peak, at {{convert|5667|ft|m|0|}}. Other outlying lower elevation hills occur, east and west, in the north section, as the Cookes Range merges into the lower elevations of the Mimbres Mountains section of the Black Range.

The range was named after its prominent peak, which in turn was named after Captain Philip St. George Cooke of the Mormon Battalion.{{Cite book|author1=Sherman, James E. |author2=Sherman, Barbara H.|year=1975|title=Ghost Towns and Mining Camps of New Mexico|location=Norman, Oklahoma|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=AeLucnQnl5QC&pg=PA56 56–57]|isbn=978-0-8061-1066-0}}{{Cite book|last=Julyan |first=Robert Hixson|year=2006|title=The Mountains of New Mexico|location=Albuquerque, New Mexico|publisher=University of New Mexico Press|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=UcDDbgr39T0C&pg=PA246 246]|isbn=978-0-8263-3516-6}} Cookes Spring was a station on the Butterfield Trail.

From local Gary Cascio:

”It doesn’t look like much, but this is called the Cooke’s Range.

At one time in the late 1800s, this was considered the most dangerous stretch of territory in the entire United States. This range, which runs north and south, starts up in the Gila wilderness.

The Gila is the home of the Apache. Geronimo was born there. There is a spring there and settlers and stage coaches would stop there on their way from the Mesilla to Lordsburg to get water. Then they would travel through a canyon cut across the mountain. The Apache knew this was the route the settlers took. So literally, like shooting ducks in a barrel, the Apache attacked one wagon train after one stage coach after another. Supposedly, there are several hundred gravesites scattered through this canyon.”

Fort Cummings (1863–1873, 1880–1886), located in the southeastern foothills of the range near Cookes Spring was established to restrict Mimbreño Apache raiding.{{harvnb|Julyan|2006|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=UcDDbgr39T0C&pg=PA248 248]}}{{Cite web|title=Cookes Peak-Fort Cummings, Luna and Hidalgo County, New Mexico|publisher=Survey New Mexico|url=http://www.surveynewmexico.com/Home/cooks-peak-fort-cummings-luna-and-hidalgo-county-new-mexico|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100518164149/http://www.surveynewmexico.com/Home/cooks-peak-fort-cummings-luna-and-hidalgo-county-new-mexico|archivedate=18 May 2010|url-status=live}}

Silver was discovered in the range north of Cooks Peak in 1876, and the Cooks Peak Mining District was established in 1880. Silver, lead, and zinc were mined there until 1967.{{Cite web|title=Cooks Peak District (Cooke's Peak District), Luna Co., New Mexico, USA|publisher=The mineral and locality database (mindat.org)|url=http://www.mindat.org/loc-33696.html}}

The higher elevations of the range are pinon-juniper shrublands habitat which gives way to Chihuahuan desert in the foothills. The Cookes Range Wilderness Study Area is located in the range.{{Cite web|url=http://www.myfishmaps.com/topo-maps/US-fishing-locations/New_Mexico/New_Mexico-Parks/Luna/OK_Canyon/Cookes-Range-Wilderness-Study-Area/|title=Cookes Range Wilderness Study Area|publisher=myfishmaps.com}}

• Battle of Cookes Canyon

{{Reflist}}

• {{Cite web|url=http://listsofjohn.com/USPro/USPro.php|title=Cookes Peak, Contiguous States US 2,000 ft Prominence List|publisher=Loj Lists of Peaks}}

• {{Cite web|url=http://www.myfishmaps.com/topo-maps/US-fishing-locations/New_Mexico/New_Mexico-Parks/Luna/OK_Canyon/Cookes-Range-Wilderness-Study-Area/|title=Cookes Range Wilderness Study Area|publisher=myfishmaps.com}}
• [http://geoinfo.nmt.edu/tour/landmarks/cookes_peak/home.html NMBGMR, Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources, Cookes Peak, Cookes Range, maps & photo gallery]

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Category:Mountain ranges of New Mexico

Category:Landforms of Luna County, New Mexico

Category:Mountain ranges of Grant County, New Mexico

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