Johnson Mesa

[1] Johnson Mesa is a high plateau with a top-of-the-world atmosphere looking out over the Great Plains far below.

New Mexico Highway 72 traverses the mesa east to west, part of the Dry Cimarron State Scenic & Historic Byway.

The cliffs surrounding the mesa are wooded with pinyon, juniper, Gambel oak and ponderosa pine, but the top is grassland.

Soon the entire mesa was full of homesteads, each with their 160 acres (65 ha) of free land.

The principal crops raised in the fertile volcanic soils of the Mesa were oats, potatoes, vegetables, and hay.

In the early 21st century, nobody lived on Johnson Mesa year round although some ranchers passed the summer there tending their cattle.