Elephant Butte, NM

Elephant Butte is a Sierra County city whose name points straight to the landform above the Rio Grande project. The 2020 census counted 1,447 residents. The nearby butte was said to look like an elephant, and the reservoir behind it made that name part of the region's daily map. This is a place where water infrastructure is also scenery: Elephant Butte Dam was completed in 1916 as part of the Rio Grande Project, storing water for irrigation and producing power.

Elephant Butte Lake State Park wraps the reservoir in boat launches, fishing spots, campgrounds, and trails, so the shoreline is the city's obvious reference point even when the lake's levels change. The dam and lake also tie the city to Truth or Consequences, where the county's secondary schools are located. There is a particular south-central New Mexico contrast here: a compact desert city beside a project built on a massive scale, with the butte's outline supplying the name everyone uses.