[3] There is abundant wildlife in this shortgrass prairie environment, including mountain lions, butterflies, and the Texas horned lizard.

[6] In the late-nineteenth and early twentieth century the area was a hideout for outlaws such as William Coe and Black Jack Ketchum.

The present-day Oklahoma Panhandle area, which was then considered a no man's land, lacked law enforcement agencies and hence the outlaws found it safe to hide in the region.

[2] A hiking trail of 4.2 miles (6.8 km) leads from the preserve to the summit which rises about 800 feet (240 m) above the level of the surrounding plains,[11] the Nature Conservancy recommends four hours minimum for a round trip; overnight camping is not permitted.

The mesa is capped by erosion-resistant basaltic lava formed by a volcanic eruption 3 to 5 million years ago.

During the years since the eruption, the adjacent rock of the Ogallala and older formations have been removed leaving the valley-filling basalt perched atop a long ridge.

Strata exposed along the mesa below the basalt and Ogallala include the Cretaceous Dakota Sandstone and the Jurassic Morrison Formation.

[16] Beginning in 1935, geologists and paleontologists have searched the mesa's outcroppings, finding dinosaur fossils in the Jurassic and Triassic strata.

A large quantity of dinosaur bones has been recovered from the Black Mesa locale; totaling over eighteen tonnes.

Clear fossil physical evidence, a distinct line of footprints believed to have been made by an allosaurus, has been found juxtaposed with the Carrizo Creek, which runs around the modern-day northern edge of the mesa.

[3] The flora and fauna and terrain of Black Mesa are unique in Oklahoma, more typical of the semi-arid grasslands and rocky buttes of eastern Colorado and New Mexico.

The more omnivorous American black bear is present, along with a variety of prey species including bighorn sheep, mule deer, and pronghorn.

[20] 61 species of butterfly are found in the preserve,[21] including seventeen skippers, three swallowtails, four hairstreaks, a copper, four whites, nine true brushfoots, two satyrs, and a leafwing.

It is a replication of the real shape and form of the mesa and is modeled to a suitable scale which brings out the short-grass prairie habitat next to a rivulet.

Stuffed and mounted animals on display are the ones found in the mesa, including eagle, vulture, mule deer, pronghorn antelope, mountain lion, prairie dog, jackrabbit and badger.