Location: Catron County, NM Map
Info: (575) 536- 9461
Open: May- Sep: 8am- 6pm
mid- Sep- mid-May: 9am- 4pm
Closed: Jan 1, Dec 25
Official site
The Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument is a United States
National Monument created to protect the ruins of the Mogollon
culture in the Gila Wilderness Area. It is located at the headwaters
of the Gila River, in southwestern New Mexico. It has an area of
2.16 km² and is located at the southern end of Catron County. It was
declared a national monument on November 16, 1907 by United States
President Theodore Roosevelt through an executive proclamation.
Cliff Dwellings is the term with which Americans refer to the
houses built by prehistoric cultures such as the Mogollon culture:
cities built in a cave under a cliff.
The monument has an
area of 553 acres (2.2 km²) and contains remains of the Mogollon
culture. Two sites stand out:
The site beneath Cliff Dweller
Canyon; where archaeologists have identified 46 rooms in five caves
and believe they were occupied by 10 to 15 families.
The TJ
Ruins, located on TJ Mesa, on a bluff overlooking the Gila River.
They are largely found unexcavated.
In the national monument
there are other sites such as Javelina House, about 533 m (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 its central confluence at the 11-room Cosgrove
Ruin.
The terrain around the ruins is rugged and arid,
containing steeply cut canyons, shallow spring rivers, plateaus, and
cliffs covered in forests of ponderosa pine, Gambel oak, Douglas
fir, New Mexico juniper, stone pine, and juniper. caiman, among
others. The geological history of the area comes from the Oligocene
era and the volcanic activity that subsequently covered the area
with ash. The monument's hot springs are vestiges of its volcanic
origin.
The Gila River region was an area that provided food
for growing, gathering, and hunting. In the upper part the Mogollón
culture flourished from the year 1275 until the beginning of the 14th
century; during the Pueblo III archaeological period. These towns
abandoned the area for unknown reasons, and left behind their homes,
later called Cliff Houses.
It is likely that local Native
American Indians knew the location of the ruins, however, the first
record of the Gila Cliff Houses' existence was made by Henry B. Ailman
(a New Mexico emigrant residing in Silver City). In the summer of 1878,
Ailman and several companions were summoned for jury duty and, in an
effort to avoid subpoena, organized a prospecting trip to the Gila
River, where they subsequently arrived at the site. While searching for
relics, Ailman found only small ears of corn. The following year he
reported that other men had found the swaddling-wrapped desiccated body
of a baby, which was photographed and sent to the Smithsonian
Institution. However, there is no record of such remains in Washington
DC.
Over the next few years, many visitors would study the homes.
Before long, the site became more accessible, and by the 1890s the Hill
brothers had established a resort at nearby Gila Hot Springs. The Hills
would begin the first tours of the ruins for visitors. In June 1906,
Rep. John F. Lacey of Iowa and chairman of the House Committee on Public
Lands introduced a bill for the regulation of prehistoric sites. The
Antiquities Preservation Act, commonly known as the Antiquities Act,
authorized the U.S. president to protect lands containing prehistoric
and historic ruins by executive order.
These federal reservations
were called National Monuments and were to be administered by the
departments of the Interior, Agriculture, and War, depending on which
agency controlled a particular site before it was removed for
conservation. In December 1906, Gila Forest Supervisor R.C. McClure
informed the chief ranger in Washington, DC, that the presence of Cliff
Houses justified its conservation by the national government, to prevent
the looting of more artifacts.
Several mummified bodies were
found at the site, although most were lost to looters and private
collectors. In 1912 a cemetery was found, where a mummified baby who was
later named Zeke was located. The discovery attracted national attention
and increased the monument's popularity and visitor numbers. This
attention was due to a sensational article in Sunset magazine about an
8,000-year-old ancient race of dwarfs in the headwaters. This mummy was
the first and only mummy to reach the Smithsonian, where she is recorded
as the body of a baby.
The first ranger was Doc Campbell, one of
the first American settlers in the region. He helped National Park
Service teams stabilize the ruins.
Administration of the monument
was transferred from the United States Department of Agriculture to the
National Park Service on August 10, 1933, by Executive Order 6166.
President Kennedy later signed Proclamation No. 3467, although it added
approximately 375 acres (1.5 km²) and containing the TJ Ruins as well as
an additional wilderness area. In the spring of 1975, the National Park
Service and the U.S. Forest Service signed a cooperative agreement
making the Gila National Forest responsible for management of the
monument, but it returned to the NPS in 2003.
Some
archaeologists maintain that Mogollon begins in 1,000 BC. on the
cultural basis of the Desert Tradition given by the Cochise, which
according to them, in 2,000 B.C. They already harvested a primitive type
of corn. The transition from an archaic society to one of sedentary
farmers with pottery introduced from the south was completed around 300
AD.
The main food source of the region's inhabitants came from
the domestication and cultivation of species such as: cassava, corn,
sunflower, herbs and nuts.
At first, their settlements were
characterized by a large number of small well-houses. From 1,000 AD.
They began to build them above ground level and, due to Anasazi
influence, ceremonial complexes appeared and, in some cases, male
residences known as "kivas", survivors of the well houses.
From about the 13th century, the Pueblo epoch began in
the area of today's national monument for the Mogollon. Although there
are also remnants of classic pueblo architecture in the park, the cliff
dwellings represent the central settlement form of this period. These
cave structures are also the namesake and main attraction of the Gila
Cliff Dwellings National Monument.
Five large caves, high in the
rocks of a side canyon of the West Fork Gila River, formed the natural
basis for the construction of these impressive structures. In total,
about 40 rooms were created in these caves. The walls of the buildings
were made of stones from the immediate vicinity, the wood used was dated
to around 1270.
It is estimated that about 10 to 15 families use
these structures for about a generation. Little is known about the end
of the Mogollon culture. The residents left the Cliff Dwellings in the
early 14th century. Why they went and where to is still a matter of
debate. One theory that is generally accepted as probable is that they
mixed with other Pueblo peoples of the American Southwest and thus
ceased to exist as a distinct culture.
After the Cliff Dwellings were abandoned by their
residents, the area of what is now the National Monument was uninhabited
for a number of years. However, nomadic groups of Apaches soon began to
settle in the area. Later, Spanish settlers also penetrated the area
from the south and settled mainly in the south and east of today's park.
On December 30, 1853, the United States acquired 77,700 km² of
Mexico as part of the Gadsden Purchase. This agreement was reached
between James Gadsden, Minister for Relations with Mexico, and Mexican
President Antonio López de Santa Anna. This marked the beginning of the
American settlement of this area. When tensions with the local Apaches
arose due to the influx of more and more settlers (homesteaders), a
military camp was set up in nearby Gila Hot Springs to protect the
settlers.
On November 16, 1907, an area of approximately 216
hectares around the cave dwellings was dedicated as Gila Cliff Dwellings
National Monument. The National Monument is the only national facility
in the United States to house remnants of the Mogollon culture. The park
maintains a visitor center that offers information material and contains
a small museum with a bookshop.
The Cliff Dwellings are located
along a one mile footpath and are 180 feet above the valley floor. The
trailhead begins a few kilometers from the visitor center and is
accessible by vehicle.
The National Monument borders directly on
the Gila Wilderness Area, the first protected area of its kind in the
United States. A wilderness area is generally under special protection
and must not contain any evidence of human intervention (roads,
buildings).