Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
Silver City, New Mexico
87.0 miles
Sunny and beautiful!
This gorgeous day took us up the road to the Gila Cliff Dwellings – a spectacular example of the incredible workmanship of the old people.
As they say, more questions than answers surround the story of the people who built these structures in the natural caves in what is now called Cliff Dweller Canyon.
Evidence suggests that many different groups have inhabited this area over thousands of years, beginning in the late 1270s.
They were part of the Mogollon culture, who combined hunting and gathering with farming and traditionally built pit houses.
The Tularosa Mogollon broke with tradition to build inside the caves with rock, mortar and timbers. But by 1300, they had moved on.
No one appears to have lived in the area for more than a century. Apaches migrated in about 1500, and legendary Geronimo was born near there in the early 1820s.
A chance prospecting trip by miner H.B. Ailman documented the cliff dwellings and when archeologists arrived to 
study the site in 1884, the site had already been looted by earlier visitors, who took many artifacts and obliterated much of the archeological record.
In 1907, Teddy Roosevelt proclaimed it a national monument to prevent further damage and vandalism.
The road in and out from the Cliff Dwellings is two-lane, curvy and beautiful.
We enjoyed the trees and the pine scented air and the birds and one little squirrel who waved at us as we drove by!
We stopped by Judge Roy Bean’s store and 
The Opera House,
and had dinner at the most elegant restaurant in town – at least inside – the Buckhorn Saloon . . . with the best steaks in the West!
I’ve been there before, and just had to share it with Sooz! 
Sadly, there was no music this night – the first time I was there, old Minnie Pearl was entertaining – at least a very good likeness of her!
It’s a place no one should ever miss if passing anywere near here!!!
Well, at least it's Lei Day in Hawaii, where I'm not! Wish I was though. I said yesterday, we'd be heading out this morning.
Lots of mines in this neck of the woods - this one, the Tyrone Mine is just south of town.
