Mushaway Peak is a small but conspicuous
butte
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In geomorphology, a butte () is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus, and tablelands. The word ''butte'' comes from a French word mea ...
located southeast of
Gail
Gail may refer to:
People
*Gail (given name), list of notable people with the given name
Surname
* Jean-Baptiste Gail (1755–1829), French Hellenist scholar
* Max Gail (born 1943), American actor
* Sophie Gail (1775–1819), French singer and ...
in central
Borden County, Texas
Borden County is a rural county located in the U.S. state of Texas. It is in West Texas and its county seat is Gail.
As of the 2020 census, its population was 631, making it the fifth-least populous county in Texas. Borden is one of six prohi ...
. It is one of the region's most venerable landmarks.
The summit of this peak rises to an altitude of above sea level, which is roughly the same altitude as the
High Plains High Plains refers to one of two distinct land regions:
* High Plains (United States), land region of the western Great Plains
*High Plains (Australia)
The High Plains of south-eastern Australia are a sub-region, or more strictly a string of adja ...
of the
Llano Estacado to the northwest. Mushaway Peak is in fact an erosional remnant of what was once a much larger Llano Estacado that has gradually retreated by the process of headward erosion. Its resistant cap has protected its underlying sediments, which have remained intact while surrounding sediments have been eroded away by Grape Creek and Bull Creek, two tributaries of the upper
Colorado River
The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid drainage basin, watershed that encompasses parts of ...
.
[
]
Proper name
Mushaway Peak has been known by various names, including: Cordova Mountain, Cordova Peak, De Corde Peak, Mount Irwin, Mochaquo Mountain, Muchakooago Peak, Mucha Koo Ave, Mucha Kooay Mountain, Muchakooayo Peak, Muchakooay Peak, Mucha Koody Mountain, Mucha Kooga, Muchakooga Peak, Muchakooyo Peak, Mucha Kowa Peak, Mucha Koway Peak, Muchaque Peak, or simply Old Baldy. In a 1936 decision of the United States Board on Geographical Names, "Muchakooay Peak" was recommended as proper orthography.[United States Board on Geographical Names. 1936. Decisions of the United States Board on Geographical Names, United States Department of the Interior, Washington DC, p. 31.] However, the 1936 decision was revised in 1973 when "Mushaway Peak" was selected as the official name of this geographic feature.[United States Board on Geographical Names. 1973. Decisions on Geographical Names in the United States, Decision list no. 7301, United States Department of the Interior, Washington DC, p. 11.]
See also
*Caprock Escarpment
The Caprock Escarpment is a term used in West Texas and Eastern New Mexico to describe the geographical transition point between the level High Plains of the Llano Estacado and the surrounding rolling terrain. In Texas, the escarpment stretch ...
*Double Mountains (Texas)
Double Mountains is the name of a pair of flat-topped buttes located southwest of Aspermont in Stonewall County, Texas. While the '' Handbook of Texas'' gives their elevation as either or , United States Geological Survey maps give the elevatio ...
*Duffy's Peak
Duffy's Peak is a small hill or butte near the Salt Fork Brazos River in Garza County, Texas. Duffy's Peak extends less than above the river, yet despite its small size, it served as an important landmark for early surveyors of the region and is ...
*Farm to Market Road 669
A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...
*Mount Blanco
Mount Blanco is a small white hill — an erosional remnant — located on the eastern border of the Llano Estacado within Blanco Canyon in Crosby County, Texas. With Blanco Canyon, it is the type locality of the Blanco Formation of Texas and Kan ...
References
External links
*
{{Borden County, Texas
Geology of Texas
Landforms of Borden County, Texas
Rock formations of Texas