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Lake Lucero is named after two brothers, José Lucero and Felipe Lucero, who in 1897 acquired a quarter-section of water-bearing land along the south shore of the largely dry lake. The brothers, who also served as
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that line the alkaline mudflats of the lakeshore. The further process of gypsum erosion abrades the fragile selenite, and other precipitated gypsum, into the pure-white sands covering most of the national park.
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Lake Lucero is located in a section of the
National Park, the Zone of Cooperative Use, to which access is typically restricted for reasons of U.S. military security. Periodic guided tours, supervised by the
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118:, parlayed their homestead into a 20,000-acre (8,100 ha) ranch; the arid land could support 2,000 cattle. Eventual condemnation of the ranch helped create part of the
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dissolved in its intermittent waters. Annual evaporation cycles have caused much of the gypsum to precipitate into crystals of impure, brownish
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passes approximately five miles southeast of the lake between Las Cruces and
Alamogordo, although the playa is not visible from the road.
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61:. The playa is noted for the unusually high quantity of water-deposited and wind-deposited
122:(1945), now also used as the Zone of Cooperative Use section of White Sands National Park.
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White Sands 1:100,000 scale
Topographic 30x60 Minute Quadrangle,
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The nearest communities offering tourism facilities are
38:crystals that formed as the lake water evaporated
295:Bodies of water of Doña Ana County, New Mexico
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166:"Lake Lucero: White Sands National Monument"
144:Lake Lucero - White Sands National Monument
27:to the west. National Park Service photo.
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49:located within that section of the
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16:Lake in New Mexico, United States
171:University of Texas at El Paso
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199:Dolores and Edward Rozylowicz
146:. U.S. National Park Service
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195:"White Sands Lake Lucero"
120:White Sands Missile Range
55:White Sands National Park
53:that is contained within
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224:National Park Service
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76:National Park Service
57:in the U.S. state of
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23:Lake Lucero with the
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25:San Andres Mountains
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219:"Lake Lucero Tours"
271:32.706°N 106.438°W
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100:Selenite crystals
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276:32.706; -106.438
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116:Doña Ana County
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140:"Lake Lucero"
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89:. U.S. route
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228:. Retrieved
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148:. Retrieved
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262:106°26′17″W
150:12 November
43:Lake Lucero
289:Categories
259:32°42′22″N
246:USGS, 1982
230:2013-01-03
204:2013-01-03
177:2013-01-03
126:References
87:Alamogordo
83:Las Cruces
59:New Mexico
112:sheriffs
67:selenite
36:Selenite
105:History
63:gypsum
47:playa
45:is a
152:2018
85:and
114:of
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186:^
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91:70
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
