Re: Lordy,Lordy

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"...the Ouichita Mountains of Arkansas/Oklahoma. The only mountain range in the USA that runs east/west."

 

Saw this statement a few years ago when looking for Opuntia and Phemeranthus in Arkansas and w. Oklahoma (dug a few roadside Iris escapees too - turned out to be I. pallida 'Dalmatica').  I got a chuckle out of the statement then, and again today.

 

I grew up mostly in Colorado, and when I was a kid I was told by the geography teacher in no uncertain terms that the "Uintah Mountains [in Utah/Colorado] are the only east-west mountain range in the United State". 

 

For a while I believed it, but not for long.

 

Not sure which is bigger, the Ouachitas or the Uintahs, but the Uintahs are much higher (the base is higher too though).

 

Of course if you live in Alaska there are plenty of east-west ranges up there (most of them) and they tend to dwarf the Ouachitas, and the Uintahs.  You can get them out of the picture by saying "lower 48".

 

There are lots of smaller ones though. The Taviputs Plateau (east and west - split by Desolation Canyon) of Colorado and Utah is high, forested, somewhat rugged, and runs basically east west.  On the map it is a "plateau", but it is high, rugged, and forested.  As much a mountain range as the Ouachitas.  The Mogollon Rim in Arizona is also a broken rugged east-west uplift that some consider a mountain range (The Taviputs and Mogollon are both basically the exposed and broken high southern edges of tilted sedimentary beds).  There are the Capitan Mountains in New Mexico, and so on. 

 

Not on the continent, but if you live in Puerto Rico you might take exception too, since the main backbone of the island is an east-west mountain range.

 

Imagine we could come up with quite a list if we tried.

 

Sounds good in the tourist brochures.  I've never been in the Ouachitas during Iris season, don't even know which native species might be in the area.  I did notice that bearded Iris were a strong fixture in many gardens in the area.

 

Anybody on the list live there?

Dave