The Sierra Vieja is a small mountain range in the

Trans-Pecos The Trans-Pecos, as originally defined in 1887 by the Texas geologist Robert T. Hill, is the portion of Texas that lies west of the Pecos River. The term is considered synonymous with Far West Texas, a subdivision of West Texas. The Trans-Peco ...

region of

West Texas West Texas is a loosely defined region in the U.S. state of Texas, generally encompassing the arid and semiarid lands west of a line drawn between the cities of Wichita Falls, Abilene, and Del Rio. No consensus exists on the boundary betwee ...

, 42 miles northwest of the city of

Marfa Marfa may refer to: Music * Marfa (instrument), an African percussion instrument * Marfa (music), celebratory music of the Hyderabadi Muslims Places * Márfa, a village in Baranya county, Hungary * Marfa, Chad * Marfa, Texas, a city in the hig ...

in far western Jeff Davis County and northwestern

Presidio County Presidio County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 6,131. Its county seat is Marfa. The county was created in 1850 and later organized in 1875. Presidio County (K-5 in Texas topological ind ...

. The range extends 16 miles south, from just east of the Van Horn Mountains. Locally known as the Candelaria Rim Rock, the Sierra Vieja comprise the southernmost tip of the

Southern Rocky Mountains The Southern Rocky Mountains are a major subregion of the Rocky Mountains of North America located in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Wyoming, the central and western portions of Colorado, the northern portion of New Mexico, and ex ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. Sierra Vieja is Spanish for "old mountains." Capote Peak is the most prominent in the range and is located fourteen miles northwest of

Ranch to Market Road 2810 A ranch (from es, rancho/Mexican Spanish) is an area of land, including various structures, given primarily to ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle and sheep. It is a subtype of a farm. These terms are most often ...

. It has an elevation of 6,212 feet above sea level, with its summit rising 1,882 feet above nearby Capote Creek. The peak stands at the southeastern edge of the range. Capote means "cloak" or "cape" referring to the fog and mist that occasionally surrounds the peak. Local folklore recounts that the name may be related to the

Lipan Apache Lipan Apache are a band of Apache, a Southern Athabaskan Indigenous people, who have lived in the Southwest and Southern Plains for centuries. At the time of European and African contact, they lived in New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and ...

Chief Capote, who lived in the region around 1850.

Cultural history

Archaeological evidence indicates a long history of human presence in the Sierra Vieja. When

Cabeza de Vaca In Mexican cuisine, ''cabeza'' (''lit.'' 'head') is the meat from a roasted head of an animal, served as taco or burrito fillings. Typically, the whole head is placed on a steamer or grill, and customers may ask for particular parts of the body ...

, the first European to explore the Big Bend in 1535, traveled up the

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( and ), known in Mexico as the Río Bravo del Norte or simply the Río Bravo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The length of the Rio G ...

, the explorer encountered a large Native American population. The extensive number of Indian sites along Walker Creek and Capote Creek are also evidence of human occupation for thousands of years. In later years, the

Apache The Apache () are a group of culturally related Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, which include the Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Lipan, Mescalero, Mimbreño, Ndendahe (Bedonkohe or Mogollon and Nednhi or Carrizaleño an ...

resided in the Sierra Vieja. The Native American presence in the area hindered cattle ranching until the final years of the nineteenth century. The Sierra Vieja rim has long served as an unofficial boundary, with Spanish language and culture prevailing west of the range on both sides of the Rio Grande. The range largely remains within the boundaries of several large ranches.

Geology and vegetation

Large-scale silicic

volcanism Volcanism, vulcanism or volcanicity is the phenomenon of eruption of molten rock (magma) onto the surface of the Earth or a solid-surface planet or moon, where lava, pyroclastics, and volcanic gases erupt through a break in the surface called ...

began in the Sierra Vieja about 39 million years ago and continued until about 35 million years ago, with the range being composed of a sequence of tertiary flow and pyroclastic rocks. The shallow, stony soils in the Sierra Vieja support live oak,

piñon pine The pinyon or piñon pine group grows in southwestern North America, especially in New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah. The trees yield edible nuts, which are a staple food of Native Americans, and widely eaten as a snack and as an ingredient in New ...

, juniper, conifer, cacti, and grasses. The mountains are also home to the Hinckley columbine, a variety of ''

Aquilegia chrysantha ''Aquilegia chrysantha'', the golden columbine, is a perennial herbaceous plant native to the southwestern United States from extreme southern Utah to Texas and northwestern Mexico. The ferny leaves have three leaflets with three lobes and gr ...

''. The plant has fern-like, delicate foliage and canary yellow flowers. It grows to three and a half feet tall and is endemic to a single site: Capote Falls in the Sierra Vieja. Capote Falls, located on spring-fed Capote Creek, is the highest waterfall in Texas at 175 feet. Despite its location in one of the driest parts of the state, it is the main drainage below the Rio Grande Rift and the Sierra Vieja on its way to the Rio Grande, and as such it consistently flows. The waterfall is located on private property.

References

{{Mountains of Texas Mountain ranges of Texas Landforms of Presidio County, Texas