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| Friday morning I left Silver City for the Chino Copper Mine in Santa Rita, NM. The Chino Mine is an open pit copper mine that supplies copper for United States pennies. The mine is 1.75 miles across. The tires on the trucks that haul out the ore are 12 feet tall. The mine is experimenting with trucks that can haul 300 tons of ore at a time. |  Chino Mine in Santa Rita |
 Fort Cobre |
On the way to the Gila (pronounced HEE-la) Cliff Dwellings, I stopped at Pinos Altos (Tall Pines) to tour a recreation of Fort Cobre. The fort was originally built by Spaniards to protect the local miners from the Apache Indians. Next to the fort were original dugout and adobe houses completely furnished for the period as well as several wooden homestead houses, corrals, and bunkhouses all furnished with the crude furniture and utensils of the period. |
| At Fort Cobre there is a huge collection of Manos and Metates used by the Indians to crush corn. They are solid stone and come in a great variety of shapes. Some are very sophisticated and some are crude but all were effective. I still prefer to get my corn meal in a one pound bag at the supermarket. The Mogollon (Muggy-OWN) and Mimbres Cultures in this area date back to 300 B.C. Later the Apaches came in but were forced out by the Spanish expansion. |  Manos and Metates |
 Highway 15 Vista |
Highway 15 is a 40 mile long twisting road that only goes to the Gila Cliffs. There is only one way in and one way out but the view is spectacular both ways. I truly missed riding the bike over these winding mountain roads. The Gila Wilderness area is the first wilderness area designated by the Congress of the United States in 1924 and the Gila National Forest covers 3.3 million acres. There are a few spots on this drive where I think you can see all 3.3 million acres at one time.. |
| The area around the cliff dwellings was inhabited by Mogollon Indians for about 1200 years but the cliff dwellings were only built about A.D. 1270. Around A.D. 1300 the Indians abandoned their dwellings and no one is sure why or where they went. The actual cliff dwellings were only used for one generation. The Indians were farmers, growing corn, beans, squash and other crops. The shot on the right was taken from the trail that leads up to the monument. You can see one of the dwelling walls inside a cave. The cave opening you can see is about 40 feet tall and 175 feet above the canyon floor. |  Cliff face with dwelling |
Gila Cliff Dwelling |
You can't really get an idea about the size of the dwellings until you get inside. The natural caves are quite deep. There are about 40 individual rooms in five caves. The ceilings of the cave are blackened by years of open fires. Most of the walls are original with only minor restoration done by the Forest Service. The 700 year old structures are testament to the natural protection of the caves. |
