Sierra Blanca is a summit in Hudspeth County, Texas, United States.
Description Sierra Blanca is set in the Chihuahuan Desert, northwest of the town of Sierra Blanca which is named after this mountain.Larry D. Hodge, Backroads of Texas: The Sites, Scenes, History, People, and Places Your Map Doesn't Tell You About, Taylor Trade Publications, 2000, , p. 165. The volcanic peak ranks as the highest point in the Sierra Blanca range,Sierra Blanca, Texas State Historical Association, Retrieved 2024-11-21. the sixth-highest summit in the county and 54th-highest in the state. It is a prominent landmark along Interstate 10 in Texas, as it is ranked 10th in topographic prominence in the state. Topographic relief is significant as the summit rises above the surrounding terrain in two miles (3.2 km). The mountain is a laccolith composed of late Oligocene rhyolite which intruded sedimentary layers of limestone, shale, and sandstone of Cretaceous age. Based on the Köppen climate classification, the mountain is located in a hot arid climate zone with hot summers and mild winters. Any scant precipitation runoff from the peak's slopes drains to the Rio Grande which is less than 20 miles to the southwest. The mountain's Spanish name translates as "White Mountain" which is attributable to white flowers which grow on the slopes,Bill Wright, The Whole Damn Cheese: Maggie Smith, Border Legend, Texas A&M University Press, 2019, .Sierra Blanca, Texas | Old West Texas Town & Joining of Railroads, March 2, 2017, Nuttyhiker.com, Retrieved 2024-11-21. and may have been so named by the Spanish explorer, Francisco Vázquez de Coronado. The mountain's toponym has been officially adopted by the United States Board on Geographic Names, and has been reported in publications since at least 1890.First Annual Report of the Geological Survey of Texas, 1889, E.T. Dumble, Geological Survey of Texas, State Printing Office, 1890, p. 219. However, the town is named after the mountain, and the town was founded in 1881 at the completion point of a southern transcontinental railway southeast of the mountain where a silver spike was laid.
See also List of mountain peaks of Texas Geography of Texas
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External links Sierra Blanca: Weather