Mimbres Valley

The pueblo the panel points to largely escaped what happened to its neighbors. Mimbres villages were dug for their painted bowls, many of them placed with burials, and sold to collectors; in 1975 the nearby Galaz site was leased to a commercial looter and its Classic pueblo bulldozed away. Mattocks, with about 180 rooms of the Classic period, was partly excavated in 1929 and then protected and studied by the Mimbres Foundation in the 1970s. Archaeology Southwest now holds an easement on it in perpetuity.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Mimbres Valley People have lived in the Mimbres Valley since at least 2000 B.C. and probably earlier. Small villages of farmers lived in pithouses-underground single-family structures-by A.D. 200. Around A.D. 1000, people began erecting pueblos, similar to the one at nearby Mattocks Ruin, that housed up to 200 people. The Mimbreños are best known for their exquisite black-on-white painted pottery decorated with humans, animals,and intricate geometric designs, one of the most spectacular artistic traditions of the ancient New World. Later groups built smaller villages after A.D. 1130, but Pueblo peoples left the region by A.D. 1450. The last indigenous occupants were Apaches who lived here through the late 1800s.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Santa Rita Copper Mine — 7.2 mi
  The copper pit east of Silver City that swallowed the town it was named for, beneath a spire of volcanic rock long said to look like a nun at prayer.
• City of Rocks State Park — 15 mi
  Pinnacles of volcanic tuff up to forty feet high standing in the grassland between Deming and Silver City, worn out of an eruption 34.9 million years ago.

More markers nearby

• Kneeling Nun — 11 mi
• Ladies Auxiliary of Local 890 — 11 mi
• Bayard — 12 mi
• Bayard — 13 mi