Site · United States
Gila Cliff Dwellings
Mogollon, 1275–1300 CE
Around 1275 a Mogollon community of the Tularosa phase built some 40 rooms inside five natural caves high above the West Fork of the Gila River and left within a generation. It is the only cliff dwelling of the Mogollon culture preserved as a park and one of the few in the Southwest where visitors walk through the rooms. Earlier Mogollon pithouses and a Mimbres-period site lie nearby.
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| State / province | New Mexico |
| Dates | 1275–1300 CE |
| Status | National Monument |
| Managed by | National Park Service with the Gila National Forest (US Forest Service) |
| Access | Reached by a two-hour mountain drive from Silver City; a one-mile loop trail climbs to the caves and the dwellings are open daily with ranger guidance. |
| Coordinates | 33.227, -108.272 (public site) |
What was found
Early collectors and later Park Service work recovered Tularosa black-on-white and corrugated pottery, corn cobs, sandals, cordage and wooden tools preserved in the dry caves; tree-ring dates of the roof beams fall in the 1270s and 1280s.
Rules
Nothing may be collected or disturbed on monument or national forest land; the Archaeological Resources Protection Act (1979), the Antiquities Act (1906) and NAGPRA apply, with felony penalties for looting. This article is for study and context only and is not a collecting locality.
Elsewhere
Cite this article
Stratum Strata. "Gila Cliff Dwellings" (Site). Stratum Strata pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-21. https://stratum.black/strata/sites/gila-cliff-dwellings. Accessed 2026-09-21.
@misc{stratum-gila-cliff-dwellings,
title = {Gila Cliff Dwellings},
author = {{Stratum Strata}},
howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/strata/sites/gila-cliff-dwellings}},
year = {2026},
note = {Site article, Stratum Strata pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-21; sources: stratum, wikidata, commons. Accessed 2026-09-21.}
} Citations carry the pack version and the article's as-of date so they resolve to the same text later. The facts themselves belong to the sources listed below; cite those for the science.