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.
New Mexico was one of the last territories to become a state, gaining statehood in 1912. Before that, it had been part of the Spanish Empire, Mexico, and the United States Territory of New Mexico.