Historical Marker

Laguna del Perro

Numerous salt ponds and lakes, of which Laguna del Perro is the largest, occur in the lowest part of the Estancia Basin, a closed depression between the Manzano Mountains to the west and the low Pedernal Hills to the east. The Basin was filled by a 150-foot-deep lake in the late Pleistocene time and native peoples have always mined salt here. The community was founded in 1879. Elevation 6,110 feet.