Box Canyon, originally known as Picacho Pass,Ormsby, Waterman L., edited by Wright, Lyle H. and Bynum, Josephine M., The Butterfield Overland Mail, Only Through Passenger on the First Westbound Stage, The Huntington Library, San Marino, 2007,pp.81-82 is a

canyon A canyon (; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), gorge or chasm, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tendency t ...

Doña Ana County, New Mexico Doña Ana County () is a county located in the southern part of the New Mexico, United States. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, its population was 219,561, which makes it the second-most populated county in New Mexico. Its county seat is Las Cruce ...

. Its mouth lies at an elevation of . Its source is at .

History

Box Canyon, was known as Pecatch Pass, to Waterman L. Ormsby, who traveled westward through it on the first westbound stage of the

Butterfield Overland Mail Butterfield Overland Mail (officially Overland Mail Company)Waterman L. Ormsby, edited by Lyle H. Wright and Josephine M. Bynum, "The Butterfield Overland Mail", The Huntington Library, San Marino, California, 1991. was a stagecoach service in ...

. This was a mistake of Picacho Pass, the name derived from the

Picacho Mountain Picacho Mountain () is a mountain in Panama. It is located in San Carlos District on the western side of the Panamá Province Panamá is a province of Panama. It is the location of the national capital Panama City, which also serves as the ...

nearby to the south of the canyon as was the village of Picacho where Ormsby's coach changed horses at the Picacho Stage Station just south of the mouth of the canyon. Ormsby described the pass: :"Our road lay through what was called the Pecatch icachoPass, and, I walked nearly all the way through it, it seemed to me rather mountainous. It was about two miles long and had some very bad hills. In comparison with other passes and cañons on the route, it was not very bad, though quite bad enough and all up hill. When however we reached the summit, we were upon the border of a broad and level plain extending as far away as the eye could reach. At our backs were the ranges of the Oregan rganMountains, the debris of the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in great-circle distance, straight-line distance from the northernmost part of Western Can ...

, forming the eastern boundary. Off in the distance Cooke's Peak, rising from the plain in bold prominence from among the surrounding hills."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Box Canyon (Dona Ana County, New Mexico) Landforms of Doña Ana County, New Mexico Valleys of New Mexico