1.
City
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A city is a large and permanent human settlement. Cities generally have complex systems for sanitation, utilities, land usage, housing, a big city or metropolis usually has associated suburbs and exurbs. Such cities are associated with metropolitan areas and urban areas. Once a city expands far enough to another city, this region can be deemed a conurbation or megalopolis. Damascus is arguably the oldest city in the world, in terms of population, the largest city proper is Shanghai, while the fastest-growing is Dubai. There is not enough evidence to assert what conditions gave rise to the first cities, some theorists have speculated on what they consider suitable pre-conditions and basic mechanisms that might have been important driving forces. The conventional view holds that cities first formed after the Neolithic revolution, the Neolithic revolution brought agriculture, which made denser human populations possible, thereby supporting city development. The advent of farming encouraged hunter-gatherers to abandon nomadic lifestyles and to settle near others who lived by agricultural production, the increased population density encouraged by farming and the increased output of food per unit of land created conditions that seem more suitable for city-like activities. In his book, Cities and Economic Development, Paul Bairoch takes up position in his argument that agricultural activity appears necessary before true cities can form. According to Vere Gordon Childe, for a settlement to qualify as a city, it must have enough surplus of raw materials to support trade and a relatively large population. To illustrate this point, Bairoch offers an example, Western Europe during the pre-Neolithic, when the cost of transport is taken into account, the figure rises to 200,000 square kilometres. Bairoch noted that this is roughly the size of Great Britain, the urban theorist Jane Jacobs suggests that city formation preceded the birth of agriculture, but this view is not widely accepted. In his book City Economics, Brendan OFlaherty asserts Cities could persist—as they have for thousands of years—only if their advantages offset the disadvantages, OFlaherty illustrates two similar attracting advantages known as increasing returns to scale and economies of scale, which are concepts usually associated with businesses. Their applications are seen in more basic economic systems as well, increasing returns to scale occurs when doubling all inputs more than doubles the output an activity has economies of scale if doubling output less than doubles cost. To offer an example of these concepts, OFlaherty makes use of one of the oldest reasons why cities were built, in this example, the inputs are anything that would be used for protection and the output is the area protected and everything of value contained in it. OFlaherty then asks that we suppose the protected area is square, the advantage is expressed as, O = s 2, where O is the output and s stands for the length of a side. This equation shows that output is proportional to the square of the length of a side, the inputs depend on the length of the perimeter, I =4 s, where I stands for the quantity of inputs. So there are increasing returns to scale, O = I2 /16 and this equation shows that with twice the inputs, you produce quadruple the output
2.
New Mexico
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New Mexico is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States of America. It was admitted to the Union as the 47th state on January 6,1912 and it is usually considered one of the Mountain States. New Mexico is fifth by area, the 36th-most populous, inhabited by Native Americans for thousands of years before European exploration, New Mexico was colonized by the Spanish in 1598 Imperial Spanish viceroyalty of New Spain. Later, it was part of independent Mexico before becoming a U. S. territory and eventually a U. S. state as a result of the Mexican–American War. Among U. S. states, New Mexico has the highest percentage of Hispanics, the major Native American nations in the state are Navajo, Pueblo, and Apache peoples. The demography and culture of the state are shaped by these strong Hispanic and Native American influences and its scarlet and gold colors are taken from the royal standards of Spain, along with the ancient sun symbol of the Zia, a Pueblo-related tribe. New Mexico, or Nuevo México in Spanish, is incorrectly believed to have taken its name from the nation of Mexico. The name simply stuck, even though the area had no connection to Mexico or the Mexica Indian tribes, Mexico, formerly a part of New Spain, adopted its name centuries later in 1821, after winning independence from Spanish rule. New Mexico was a part of the independent Mexican Empire and Federal Republic of Mexico for 27 years,1821 through 1848, New Mexico and Mexico developed as neighboring Spanish-speaking communities under Spanish rule, with relatively independent histories. The states total area is 121,412 square miles, the eastern border of New Mexico lies along 103° W longitude with the state of Oklahoma, and 2.2 miles west of 103° W longitude with Texas. On the southern border, Texas makes up the eastern two-thirds, while the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora make up the western third, the western border with Arizona runs along the 109°03 W longitude. The southwestern corner of the state is known as the Bootheel, the 37° N latitude parallel forms the northern boundary with Colorado. The states New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, and Utah come together at the Four Corners in the corner of New Mexico. New Mexico, although a state, has very little water. Its surface water area is about 250 square miles, the New Mexican landscape ranges from wide, rose-colored deserts to broken mesas to high, snow-capped peaks. Despite New Mexicos arid image, heavily forested mountain wildernesses cover a significant portion of the state, the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the southernmost part of the Rocky Mountains, run roughly north-south along the east side of the Rio Grande in the rugged, pastoral north. The most important of New Mexicos rivers are the Rio Grande, Pecos, Canadian, San Juan, the Rio Grande is tied for the fourth-longest river in the United States. Tourists visiting these sites bring significant money to the state, other areas of geographical and scenic interest include Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument and the Gila Wilderness in the southwest of the state
3.
ZIP Code
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ZIP Codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, was chosen to suggest that the travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly. The basic format consists of five numerical digits, an extended ZIP+4 code, introduced in 1983, includes the five digits of the ZIP Code, a hyphen, and four additional digits that determine a more specific location within a given ZIP Code. The term ZIP Code was originally registered as a servicemark by the U. S. Postal Service, USPS style for ZIP is all caps and the c in code is also capitalized, although style sheets for some publications use sentence case or lowercase. The early history and context of postal codes began with postal district/zone numbers, the United States Post Office Department implemented postal zones for numerous large cities in 1943. For example, Mr. John Smith 3256 Epiphenomenal Avenue Minneapolis 16, by the early 1960s a more organized system was needed, and on July 1,1963, non-mandatory five-digit ZIP Codes were introduced nationwide. Three months later, on October 1,1963, the U. S, an earlier list in June had proposed capitalized abbreviations ranging from two to five letters. The abbreviations have remained unchanged, with one exception, according to the historian of the U. S. Robert Moon, an employee of the post office, is considered the father of the ZIP Code, he submitted his proposal in 1944 while working as a postal inspector. The post office gives credit to Moon only for the first three digits of the ZIP Code, which describe the sectional center facility or sec center, an SCF is a central mail processing facility with those three digits. The SCF sorts mail to all post offices with those first three digits in their ZIP Codes, the mail is sorted according to the final two digits of the ZIP Code and sent to the corresponding post offices in the early morning. Sectional centers do not deliver mail and are not open to the public, Mail picked up at post offices is sent to their own SCF in the afternoon, where the mail is sorted overnight. The United States Post Office used a character, which it called Mr. ZIP. He was often depicted with a such as USE ZIP CODE in the selvage of panes of stamps or on labels contained in, or the covers of. In 1983, the U. S. Postal Service introduced an expanded ZIP Code system that it called ZIP+4, often called plus-four codes, add-on codes, or add ons. But initial attempts to promote use of the new format met with public resistance. For Post Office Boxes, the rule is that each box has its own ZIP+4 code. However, there is no rule, so the ZIP+4 Code must be looked up individually for each box. It is common to use add-on code 9998 for mail addressed to the postmaster,9999 for general delivery, for a unique ZIP Code, the add-on code is typically 0001
4.
Clovis, New Mexico
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Clovis is the county seat of Curry County, New Mexico, United States, with a population of 37,775 as of the 2010 census, and a 2014 estimated population of 39,860. Clovis is located in the New Mexico portion of the Llano Estacado, a largely agricultural community, closely bordering Texas, it is noted for its role in early rock music history and for nearby Cannon Air Force Base. Clovis people are considered to be the ancestors of most of the cultures of the Americas. The Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe Railway system helped to establish Clovis over a hundred years ago, also notable is the Southwest Cheese Company, the largest cheddar cheese producer in North America. It is the city of the Clovis Micropolitan Statistical Area. The eastern New Mexico region was home to the prehistoric Clovis culture, several remains have been found at the Blackwater Draw site, which remains a historical and tourist site. Clovis began in 1906, when the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway was being constructed through the area and railway engineers were ordered to choose a town site. At first known as Rileys Switch, it was renamed Clovis by the masters daughter, who was studying about Clovis. The settlement built up quickly and in 1909 was incorporated, Clovis had first attracted human beings and then was able to persuade them to remain in this area over 12,000 years ago. The earliest residents are known as Clovis Man, named after an arrow-head or spear-point found near present-day Clovis. Since the most recent ice age retreated north, these nomadic hunters known as the Clovis Man remained in the Southwestern part of New Mexico, on August 24,2008, eight prisoners escaped from the Clovis Jail by shimmying up plumbing pipes. The escape was highlighted on the television show Americas Most Wanted, Clovis celebrated its centennial in 2009. Clovis is located in southeastern Curry County at 34°24′45″N 103°12′17″W,9 miles west of the Texas border, the citys geographic center is at an elevation of 4,281 feet above sea level. Routes 60,70, and 84 pass through the city, US60 and 84 lead west 60 miles to Fort Sumner, while US70 leads southwest 19 miles to Portales and 110 miles to Roswell. The three highways lead east together to the line at Texico, New Mexico, and Farwell. Cannon Air Force Base is 7 miles west of the center of Clovis, as of the census of 2000, there were 32,667 people,12,458 households, and 8,596 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,458.9 people per square mile, there were 14,269 housing units at an average density of 637.3 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 71. 3% White,7. 32% Black,1. 02% Native American,1. 62% Asian,0. 13% Pacific Islander,14. 98% from other races, Hispanic or Latino were 33. 44% of the population
5.
Cannon Air Force Base
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Cannon Air Force Base is a United States Air Force Base, located approximately 7 miles southwest of Clovis, New Mexico. It is under the jurisdiction of Air Force Special Operations Command, the population of the Cannon AFB CDP was 2,245 as of the 2010 census. The host unit at Cannon is the 27th Special Operations Wing, which activated on 1 October 2007, Cannon AFB was established in 1942 as Army Air Base, Clovis. The commander of the 27th Special Operations Wing is Colonel Tony D. Bauernfeind, the Command Chief Master Sergeant is Paul J Henderson II. The AC-130W is assigned to the 73rd Special Operations Squadron, with all twelve becoming operational in 2010, Cannon Air Force Base is named in honor of General John K. Cannon. In 1950 he returned to Europe as Commander in Chief of USAFE, General Cannon retired in 1954 as Commanding General, Tactical Air Command. The history of the began in the late 1920s, when a civilian passenger facility. Portair Field was used as a terminal for early commercial transcontinental flights, flew passengers in the Ford Trimotor “Tin Goose” by day, in the 1930s Portair was renamed Clovis Municipal Airport. After the United States entered World War II, the first military unit to use the facility was a glider detachment, on 6 July 1942 the base was assigned to Second Air Force. In 1943, the military began to use the facility as a bomber base, Clovis AAF was assigned to II Bomber Command, Second Air Force. On 8 April 1943, the base was renamed Clovis Army Air Field, the 16th Bomb Wing arrived in January 1943. Known USAAF groups assigned to Clovis AAF were, 302d Bombardment Group Served as a training unit. 450th Bombardment Group Trained with B-24s, transferred to Fifteenth Air Force in Italy. 498th Bombardment Group Trained with B-29 Superfortresses, transferred to Twentieth Air Force in Saipan. 497th Bombardment Group Trained with B-29 Superfortresses, transferred to Twentieth Air Force in Saipan. 472d Bombardment Group Trained with B-29 Superfortresses, 500th Bombardment Group Trained with B-29 Superfortresses. Transferred to Twentieth Air Force in Saipan, 93d Bombardment Group Arrived at Clovis AAF for inactivation. 467th Bombardment Group Trained with B-29s Superfortresses, on 16 April 1945, Clovis AAF was transferred from jurisdiction of Second Air Force to Continental Air Command
6.
Eastern New Mexico University
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Eastern New Mexico University, frequently called Eastern is a state university in Portales, Roosevelt County, New Mexico, United States. It is the most recently founded university in New Mexico. ENMUs main campus is located in Portales and there are also two degree-granting branches, at Ruidoso and Roswell, from 1934 to 1940, the institution, first named Eastern New Mexico Junior College operated as a community college. In 1940, the third and fourth years of college were first offered, leading to a degree. ENMC was accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools as a liberal arts college in 1946-47. ENMU owns KENW and KENW-FM, a television and radio station that are housed and operated on the main campus. The ENMU Ruidoso Campus is a college or community college. In 1991, the Ruidoso location had been established as the ENMU Ruidoso Branch Community College and offered two-year college academic and it operates a One-Stop Career Center which provides free employment services for employers and job seekers in Lincoln County. The Center offers both an academic and vocational curriculum, the ENMU Roswell Campus, also a two-year branch, offers a wide variety of programs. The branch was established in the fall of 1958, in the spring of 1967, the institution moved to 12 buildings on 241 acres of the former Walker Air Force Base. ENMUs online degrees in the fields of business and education are the most affordable in the U. S and it contains more than 30,000 volumes, including science fiction books, SF pulps dating back to the early 1900s, manuscripts, correspondence, and photographs. ENMUs athletic teams participate in the NCAA Division II Lone Star Conference, the Mens teams are nicknamed the Greyhounds, and the Womens teams are nicknamed the Zias. In early 2015, students and faculty voted to discontinue the Zia nickname and become the Lady Greyhounds, ENMU vacated a number of wins starting from the 2008-09 season after the university self-reported over 100 eligibility violations. Michael Kanteena Daryush Shokof founded the movement maximalism in the arts in 1990 in Germany. Ronny Cox Steven Michael Quezada Daryush Shokof John E. Douglas Arthur M. Dula Michael Blake Diana Ossana Miranda Prather Jack Williamson Clyde Snow Brian P. Bonnett Sir Stanley Lehman, MD, Esq
7.
Peanut
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The peanut, also known as the groundnut and the goober and taxonomically classified as Arachis hypogaea, is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics, being important to small and large commercial producers. It is classified as both a grain legume and, because of its oil content, an oil crop. World annual production of shelled peanuts was 42 million tonnes in 2014, atypically among crop plants, peanut pods develop underground rather than aboveground. It is this characteristic that the botanist Linnaeus used to assign the specific name hypogaea, as a legume, the peanut belongs to the botanical family Fabaceae, this is also known as Leguminosae, and commonly known as the bean, or pea, family. Like most other legumes, peanuts harbor symbiotic nitrogen-fixing bacteria in root nodules and this capacity to fix nitrogen means peanuts require less nitrogen-containing fertilizer and improve soil fertility, making them valuable in crop rotations. Peanuts are similar in taste and nutritional profile to tree nuts such as walnuts and almonds, the botanical definition of a nut is a fruit whose ovary wall becomes very hard at maturity. Using this criterion, the peanut is not a true nut, however, for culinary purposes and in common English language usage, peanuts are usually referred to as nuts. Cultivated peanut arose from a hybrid between two species of peanut, thought to be A. duranensis and A. ipaensis. The initial hybrid would have been sterile, but spontaneous chromosome doubling restored its fertility, the process of domestication through artificial selection made A. hypogaea dramatically different from its wild relatives. The domesticated plants are bushier and more compact, and have a different pod structure, the initial domestication may have taken place in northwestern Argentina, or in southeastern Bolivia, where the peanut landraces with the most wild-like features are grown today. From this primary center of origin, cultivation spread and formed secondary and tertiary centers of diversity in Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, Paraguay, over time, thousands of peanut landraces evolved, these are classified into six botanical varieties and two subspecies. Subspecies A. h. fastigiata types are more upright in their habit and have shorter crop cycles. Subspecies A. h. hypogaea types spread more on the ground and have longer crop cycles, the oldest known archeological remains of pods have been dated at about 7,600 years old. These may be pods from a species that was in cultivation. They were found in Peru, where dry conditions are favorable to the preservation of organic material. Almost certainly, peanut cultivation antedated this at the center of origin where the climate is moister, many pre-Columbian cultures, such as the Moche, depicted peanuts in their art. Cultivation was well established in Mesoamerica before the Spanish arrived, there, the conquistadors found the tlalcacahuatl being offered for sale in the marketplace of Tenochtitlan
8.
Spain
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By population, Spain is the sixth largest in Europe and the fifth in the European Union. Spains capital and largest city is Madrid, other urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago, in the Middle Ages, the area was conquered by Germanic tribes and later by the Moors. Spain is a democracy organised in the form of a government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a power and a major developed country with the worlds fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP. Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the span is the Phoenician word spy. Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean the land where metals are forged, two 15th-century Spanish Jewish scholars, Don Isaac Abravanel and Solomon ibn Verga, gave an explanation now considered folkloric. Both men wrote in two different published works that the first Jews to reach Spain were brought by ship by Phiros who was confederate with the king of Babylon when he laid siege to Jerusalem. This man was a Grecian by birth, but who had given a kingdom in Spain. He became related by marriage to Espan, the nephew of king Heracles, Heracles later renounced his throne in preference for his native Greece, leaving his kingdom to his nephew, Espan, from whom the country of España took its name. Based upon their testimonies, this eponym would have already been in use in Spain by c.350 BCE, Iberia enters written records as a land populated largely by the Iberians, Basques and Celts. Early on its coastal areas were settled by Phoenicians who founded Western Europe´s most ancient cities Cadiz, Phoenician influence expanded as much of the Peninsula was eventually incorporated into the Carthaginian Empire, becoming a major theater of the Punic Wars against the expanding Roman Empire. After an arduous conquest, the peninsula came fully under Roman Rule, during the early Middle Ages it came under Germanic rule but later, much of it was conquered by Moorish invaders from North Africa. In a process took centuries, the small Christian kingdoms in the north gradually regained control of the peninsula. The last Moorish kingdom fell in the same year Columbus reached the Americas, a global empire began which saw Spain become the strongest kingdom in Europe, the leading world power for a century and a half, and the largest overseas empire for three centuries. Continued wars and other problems led to a diminished status. The Napoleonic invasions of Spain led to chaos, triggering independence movements that tore apart most of the empire, eventually democracy was peacefully restored in the form of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Spain joined the European Union, experiencing a renaissance and steady economic growth
9.
History of New Mexico
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The history of New Mexico is based on both archeological evidence, attesting to varying cultures of humans occupying the area of New Mexico since approximately 9200 BCE, and written records. The earliest peoples had migrated from areas of North America after leaving Siberia via the Bering Land Bridge. Artifacts and architecture demonstrate ancient complex cultures in this region, the first written records of the region were made by the Spanish Conquistadors, who encountered Native American Pueblos when they explored the area in the 16th century. Since that time, the Spanish Empire, Mexico, and the United States have claimed control of the area, the area was governed as New Mexico Territory until 1912, when it was admitted as a state. The relatively isolated state had a dependent on mining. Its residents and government suffered from a reputation for corruption and extreme traditionalism, New Mexico introduced the atomic age in 1945, as the first nuclear weapons were developed by the federal government in the research center it established at Los Alamos. Ethnically the state has historically been divided among Native American, Hispanic, human occupation of New Mexico stretches back at least 11,000 years to the Clovis culture of hunter-gatherers. They left evidence of their campsites and stone tools, after the invention of agriculture, the land was inhabited by the Ancient Pueblo Peoples, who built houses out of stone or adobe bricks. They experienced a Golden Age around AD1000, but climate change led to migration, from those people arose the historic Pueblo peoples who lived primarily along the few major rivers. The most important rivers are the Rio Grande, the Pecos, the Canadian, the San Juan, and the Gila. PREHISTORIC NEW MEXICANS The Pueblo people built a flourishing sedentary culture in the 13th century C. E. constructing small towns in the valley of the Rio Grande and pueblos nearby. By about 700 to 900 AD, the Pueblo began to abandon ancient pit houses dug in cliffs, by 1050 AD, they had developed planned villages composed of large terraced buildings, each with many rooms. The largest of these villages, Pueblo Bonito, in the Chaco Canyon of New Mexico, contained around 700 rooms in five stories, no larger apartment-house type construction would be seen on the continent until 19th century Chicago and New York. Then, around 1150, Chaco Anasazi society began to unravel, at the same time, the ceramic industry became more elaborate, cotton replaced yucca fiber as the main clothing material and basket weaving became more artistic. The Spanish encountered Pueblo civilization and elements of the Athabaskans in the 16th century, cabeza de Vaca in 1535, one of only four survivors of the Panfilo de Narvaez expedition of 1527, tells of hearing Indians talk about fabulous cities somewhere in New Mexico. Fray Marcos de Niza enthusiastically identified these as the fabulously rich Seven Cities of Cíbola, francisco Vásquez de Coronado led a massive expedition to find these cities in 1540–1542. Coronado camped near an excavated pueblo today preserved as Coronado National Memorial in 1541, the three largest pueblos of New Mexico are Zuñi, Santo Domingo, and Laguna. There are three different languages spoken by the pueblos, the Navajo and Apache peoples are members of the large Athabaskan language family, which includes peoples in Alaska and Canada, and along the Pacific Coast
10.
Navajo
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The Navajo are a Native American people of the Southwestern United States. After the Cherokee, they are the second-largest federally recognized tribe in the United States, the Navajo language is spoken throughout the region, with most Navajos speaking English, as well. The states with the largest Navajo populations are Arizona and New Mexico, over three-quarters of the Navajo population reside in these two states. The Navajos are speakers of a Na-Dené Southern Athabaskan language known within the language as Diné bizaad, the language comprises two geographic, mutually intelligible dialects. It is closely related to the Apache language, as the Navajos and Apaches are believed to have migrated from northwestern Canada and eastern Alaska, speakers of various other Athabaskan languages located in Canada may still comprehend the Navajo language despite the geographic and linguistic deviation of the languages. Additionally, some Navajos speak Navajo Sign Language, which is either a dialect or daughter of Plains Sign Talk, archaeological and historical evidence suggests the Athabaskan ancestors of the Navajos and Apaches entered the Southwest around 1400 CE. The Navajo oral tradition is said to retain references of this migration, until contact with Pueblos and the Spanish, the Navajos were largely hunters and gatherers. The tribe adopted crop-farming techniques from the Pueblo peoples, growing corn, beans. When the Spanish arrived, the Navajos began herding sheep and goats as a source of trade and food. Sheep also became a form of currency and status symbols among the Navajos based on the quantity of herds a family maintained. In addition, the practice of spinning and weaving wool into blankets and clothing became common, in the 18th century, the Spanish reported the Navajos maintaining large herds of livestock and cultivating large crop areas. Navahu comes from the Tewa, meaning area of cultivated lands. By the 1640s, the Spanish began using the term Navajo to refer to the Diné, during the 1670s, the Spanish wrote that the Diné lived in a region known as Dinétah, about 60 miles west of the Rio Chama valley region. In the 1780s, the Spanish sent military expeditions against the Navajos in the Mount Taylor, the Navajos came into contact with the United States Army in 1846, when General Stephen W. Kearny invaded Santa Fe with 1,600 men during the Mexican–American War. The treaty was not honored by many young Navajo raiders, who continued to steal livestock from New Mexican villages, New Mexicans, on their part, together with Utes, continued to raid Navajo country, stealing livestock and taking women and children for sale as slaves. In 1849, the governor of New Mexico, Colonel John MacRae Washington—accompanied by John S. The treaty acknowledged the jurisdiction of the United States and allowed forts, the United States, on its part, promised such donations such other liberal and humane measures, as may deem meet and proper. While en route to this treaty signing, Narbona, a prominent Navajo peace leader, was killed, during the next 10 years, the U. S. established forts on traditional Navajo territory
11.
Llano Estacado
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Llano Estacado commonly known as the Staked Plain, is a region in the Southwestern United States that encompasses parts of eastern New Mexico and northwestern Texas. The Llano Estacado lies at the end of the Western High Plains ecoregion of the Great Plains of North America. The Canadian River forms the Llanos northern boundary, separating it from the rest of the High Plains, the Llano has no natural southern boundary, instead blending into the Edwards Plateau near Big Spring, Texas. This geographic area stretches about 250 miles north to south, and 150 miles east to west and it covers all or part of 33 Texas counties and four New Mexico counties. The landscape is dotted by numerous small lakes, depressions that seasonally fill with water. The Llano Estacado has a semiarid climate, characterized by long, hot summers. Rainfall is very low, the region receives fewer than 23 in of rainfall annually. High summer temperatures mean most of the amount of precipitation is lost to evaporation. The Texas State Historical Society states it covers all or part of 33 Texas counties, six fewer than as depicted by a US Geological Survey map, interstate 40 crosses the northern portion from east of Amarillo to Tucumcari, New Mexico. There was not a stone, nor bit of rising ground, nor a tree, nor a shrub, in the early 18th century, the Comanches expanded their territory into the Llano Estacado, displacing the Apaches who had previously lived there. The region became part of the Comancheria, a Comanche stronghold until the defeat of the tribe in the late 19th century. Rachel Plummer, while a captive of the Comanche in 1836, after his 1852 expedition to explore the headwaters of the Red and Colorado Rivers, General Randolph Marcy wrote, a tree, shrub, or any other herbage to intercept the vision. The almost total absence of water causes all animals to shun it, in his report for the United States Army, When we were upon the high table-land, a view presented itself as boundless as the ocean. Not a tree, shrub, or any object, either animate or inanimate, relieved the dreary monotony of the prospect. The great Sahara of North America and it is a region almost as vast and trackless as the ocean—a land where no man, either savage or civilized permanently abides. A treeless, desolate waste of uninhabitable solitude, which always has been, during the 1854 Marcy-Neighbors expedition, Dr. George Getz Shumard noted, Beyond the mountain appeared a line of high bluffs which in the distance looked like clouds floating upon the horizon. Herman Lehmann was captured by the Apache in 1870 and described the Llano Estacado as the country was open, but not exactly a desert. Robert G. Carter described it in 1871 while pursuing Quanah Parker with Ranald S. Mackenzie. all were over and out of the canyon upon what appeared to be a vast, almost illimitable expanse of prairie
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