A potrero is a long

mesa A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge or hill, which is bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and stands distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas characteristically consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks capped by a ...

that at one end slopes upward to higher terrain. This

landform A landform is a natural or anthropogenic land feature on the solid surface of the Earth or other planetary body. Landforms together make up a given terrain, and their arrangement in the landscape is known as topography. Landforms include hills, ...

commonly occurs on the flanks of a mountain, as part of a

dissected plateau A dissected plateau is a plateau area that has been severely eroded such that the relief is sharp. Such an area may be referred to as mountainous, but dissected plateaus are distinguishable from orogenic mountain belts by the lack of folding, ...

. A loan word from the

Spanish language Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a global language with more than 500 million native speakers, mainly in the ...

, potrero is in current use in the

southwestern United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, N ...

, where it is sometimes translated as "tongue of land" and "enclosed piece of pasture land". In the Spanish language, however, the "tongue of land" sense is archaic. Also archaic is the related sense of potrero referring to someone who wrangles young

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...

s (''potros'' in Spanish) kept as breeding stock (not saddle or pack stock). In Spanish, the usual sense of ''potrero'' now refers to any land (such as a ranch, open range, or community pasture) where such horses are kept. Notable examples of potreros include some of the many mesas of the

Pajarito Plateau The Pajarito Plateau is a volcanic plateau in north central New Mexico, United States. The plateau, part of the Jemez Mountains, is bounded on the west by the Sierra de los Valles, the range forming the east rim of the Valles Caldera, and on the e ...

near

Santa Fe, New Mexico Santa Fe ( ; , Spanish for 'Holy Faith'; tew, Oghá P'o'oge, Tewa for 'white shell water place'; tiw, Hulp'ó'ona, label= Northern Tiwa; nv, Yootó, Navajo for 'bead + water place') is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. The name “S ...

(

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

).These "finger mesas" were once a continuous deposit of compressed volcanic ash (the

Bandelier Tuff The Bandelier Tuff is a geologic formation exposed in and around the Jemez Mountains of northern New Mexico. It has a radiometric age of 1.85 to 1.25 million years, corresponding to the Pleistocene epoch. The tuff was erupted in a series of at ...

). Water then cut the tuff into nearly equidistant canyons. When the ancient Pueblos abandoned

Chaco Canyon Chaco Culture National Historical Park is a United States National Historical Park in the American Southwest hosting a concentration of pueblos. The park is located in northwestern New Mexico, between Albuquerque and Farmington, in a remote c ...

, some relocated to the Pajarito Plateau and carved grand dwellings directly into the soft tuff at the bases of the potreros. They also built atop the potreros and on the canyon floors.
Bandelier National Monument: History and Culture], National Park Service Some of these dwellings and the surrounding potreros are protected at

Bandelier National Monument Bandelier National Monument is a United States National Monument near Los Alamos in Sandoval and Los Alamos counties, New Mexico. The monument preserves the homes and territory of the Ancestral Puebloans of a later era in the Southwest. Most ...

. Historically, these potreros were used as winter pasture for livestock (horses, sheep, and cattle) that were driven to and from lush summer pastures in the high grass valleys (''valles'') of the

Valles Caldera Valles Caldera (or Jemez Caldera) is a wide volcanic caldera in the Jemez Mountains of northern New Mexico. Hot springs, streams, fumaroles, natural gas seeps and volcanic domes dot the caldera floor landscape. The highest point in the calde ...

. Today, these potreros are used in this manner by a large herd of elk. These ''potreros'' are natural enclosures, with only one principal exit: the narrow connection to higher land. In Spain a ''potrero'' is

common land Common land is land owned by a person or collectively by a number of persons, over which other persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect wood, or to cut turf for fuel. A person who has a ...

in poor condition.

References

Mesas Tables (landform) . Erosion landforms Spanish words and phrases {{topography-stub