The Gila Cliff Dwelling National Monument is in a very remote location and is considered to be one of the northernmost settlement of the Mogollon culture. This ruin site is one of several other sites within the Gila National Forest area.

Other ruins include Javalina House, about 1/3 mile above the main ruin, West Fork Ruin, currently under Highway 15 across from Woody Corral, Three Mile Ruin along the west fork of the Gila River, and the eleven room Cosgrove Ruin on the middle fork of the Gila River.

The terrain varies From 5,700 to 7,300 feet elevation, is rugged and arid, and contains steep-sided canyons cut by shallow spring rivers with mesas and bluffs forested with pinon pine, Ponderosa pine, Gambel′s oak, Douglas fir, New Mexico juniper, alligator juniper and others.

The geologic history of the area was developed about 34 million to 23 million year ago during the Oligocene epoch, and with widespread volcanic activity that covered that area with ash. The national monument also has some hot springs which are also remnant of this volcanic history.

The Gila Cliff Dwellinga Ruins are located in southeast New Mexico, about 45.2 miles north of Silver City, New Mexico on SH 15.

Basin and Range

Escarpment and Mountains Ecoregion

For some time, the first wayƒarers, as they hunted game and gathered other foods they found to be edible, they began to find locations that would provide respite from the rain, snow, sun and wind. Yes, in this region, groups of nomadic people used these caves along the headwaters of the Gila River as temporary shelters. Too, they found that this region proved suitable to them for gathering and hunting food as well as for growing crops.

The Moggolon culture flourished from the late Desert Wayfarer period, c. 200 CE, to the Post-Wayfarer period, until some time between 1450 and 1540 CE, when the first Spanish explorers arrived.

This particular dwelling site was located in the northernmost area of Mogollon culture and was believed to be inhabited from about 1200 CE to 1300 CE.

However, sometime in the late 1200′s CE, the people of the Mogollon Culture decided some of these caves would be a good place to call home and they began to built rooms, craft pottery and raise children in the cliff dwellings, this being most likely the northernmost reaches of this culture. These Mogollon people, it appears, only stayed here for just a few decades before they moved on, leaving the walls as a place for others to come and wander about those who were here before.

An examination of this culture has revealed much about these ancient cliff dwellers. Still, so much is not understood about what they did, why they did it and then why they packed out and left.

Dendrochronology (tree ring dating) determined that the wood used in the dwellings were cut between 1276 and 1287.

A good example of how pictograph fade with time is the Mogollon Mural at Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument. The original image on a stone stacker wall and completely covered under the cliff, is gone, now unrecognizable as a pictograph.