Rabbit Ears - Clayton, New Mexico - Wikipedia Entries on Waymarking.com

County of site: Union County
Location of site: NM-370, 5 miles NW of Clayton
Site is listed on the NRHP

Reference to officers comments during vote to approve/deny: Coordinates are of the mountain. There is public land and a state park, see web sites provided. The marker is on US-64 W. of Clayton, but you can travel up NM-370 (see map provided) and visit State Park.
Sites to aid in finding the site: Clayton, Peak Information, USGS

Rabbit Ear Mountain, remnants of ancient volcanoes, are named for a Cheyenne Chief, Orejos de Conjeo, who died in a battle with Spanish colonists in 1717. This geographic feature north of Clayton, was the first important landmark for merchants from Missouri traveling the Santa Fe Trail (1821 - 1879)

New Mexico Marker on US-64, from where photo was taken. Text of Marker:

RABBIT EAR MOUNTAIN These two striking mounds were the first features to become visible to Santa Fe Trail traffic crossing into New Mexico from Oklahoma, and so became important landmarks for caravans.
From here, traffic on this major 19th century commercial route still had about 200 miles to travel before reaching Santa Fe.

The first was in 1717. A Comanche or Cheyenne chief, depending upon which version of the story is told, was killed. The chief's name was Orejas de Conejo, Rabbit Ears, from which the two summits on the flat horizon draw their name. The larger one to the west is Rabbit Ear Mountain. The smaller one to the east is Rabbit Ear Butte. According to tradition, the chief's name was derived from ears that had been damaged by frostbite at some point in his life. He is said to be buried up there.

Wikipedia Url: [Web Link]

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