Mount Taylor () is a dormant stratovolcano in northwest New Mexico, northeast of the town of Grants. It is the high point of the San Mateo Mountains and the highest point in the Cibola National Forest. It was renamed in 1849 for then-president Zachary Taylor. Previously, it was called Cebolleta (tender onion) by the Spaniards; the name persists as one name for the northern portion of the San Mateo Mountains, a large mesa. The Navajo, for whom the mountain is sacred, still call it Turquoise Mountain (Tsoodził). Mount Taylor is largely forested with some meadows, rising above the desert below. The mountain is heavily eroded to the east. Its slopes were an important source of lumber for neighboring pueblos. Mount Taylor volcanic field Mount Taylor volcano is a prominent volcano that is part of a larger volcanic field that trends to the northeast. The Mount Taylor volcanic field includes Mesa Chivato to the northeast and Grants Ridge to the southwest. The Mount Taylor volcanic field is composed primarily of silica-poor (mafic) lava (with 80% by volume), most of which is trachybasalt. Basalt and basanite are present in much smaller amounts. The field straddles the extensional transition zone between the Colorado Plateau and the Rio Grande rift. The largest volcanic plug in the volcanic field is Cabezon Peak, which rises nearly 2,000 feet above the surrounding plain. Native American Traditions Mount Taylor is sacred to the pueblos of Acoma, Laguna and Zuni and the Hopi and Navajo people. Mount Taylor is , the blue bead mountain, sometimes translated Turquoise Mountain, one of the four sacred mountains marking the cardinal directions and the boundaries of the Dinetah, the traditional Navajo homeland. Mount Taylor marks the southern boundary, and is associated with the direction south and the color blue; it is gendered female. In Navajo mythology, First Man created the sacred mountains from soil from the Fourth World, together with sacred matter, as replicas of mountains from that world. He fastened Mount Taylor to the earth with a stone knife. The supernatural beings Black God, Turquoise Boy, and Turquoise Girl are said to reside on the mountain. According to Robert Julyan's The Place Names of New Mexico, the Navajos identify Cabezon Peak "as the head of a giant killed by the Twin War Gods" with the lava flow to the south of Grants believed to be the congealed blood of the giant. Topography