About other Black Mesas
The Spanish word mesa ‘table’ is
applied in the American Southwest
to geological formations of
roughly table-like form — almost anything with a flat or flattish
top may be called a mesa. As the Oxford Dictionary of American English
puts it:
me·sa ... an isolated flat-topped hill with steep sides,
found in landscapes with horizontal strata
Black Mesa is the name of several places in New Mexico, and several
organizations use the phrase “black mesa” in their names.
Among those I am aware of are:
- a geological formation next to the Rio Grande, on land that forms
part of San Ildefonso Pueblo in northern New Mexico; this is the Black
Mesa whose outline is used in the logo of Black Mesa Technologies and
for which Black Mesa Technologies is named
- a formation north of Española, New Mexico, separating the Rio Grande from
the Rio Chama
- a mesa lying between Albuquerque and the Bosque del Apache wildlife
preserve
- Black Mesa Capital, an investment organization based in Santa Fe (which
appears not to have a Web site)
- Black Mesa Coffee
- Black Mesa Winery in
Velarde, New Mexico
- Black Mesa Research Facility,
an ominous fictional organization located in New Mexico in the video game Half Life