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Buckhorn, Cliff and Gila — places of the heart
Last updated on Monday, December 30, 2002
North of bustling Silver City and south of the rugged Datil Mountains lies the Gila River Valley of southwestern New Mexico, a place rich in history, beauty and spirit. Nearly eighty miles long (north and south), this area encompasses three distinct eco-zones, scenic vistas which even modestly accessed must be called breathtaking, and a human synergism without parallel in the region.
Entering Gila, New Mexico. Photo by Carla DeMarco Here, where the soaring Mogollon Mountains blend into the lush verdure of the Gila River bottoms and high desert hills begin their ramble to the Arizona borderlands, lives an unusual assortment of people. Old ranching families whose pedigrees go back to the Old West days live side-by-side with long-haired, love-beaded survivors of the 60s. Khaki-clad militia-types gossip at local post offices with ruddy-cheeked retirees from distant urban life. This is a potpourri of people whose attitudes and backgrounds belie the harmony in which they live.
Sprinkled into this valley are three communities, too tiny to be called "towns," yet too vital to be dismissed as "widespots in the road."
Buckhorn is named for a warlike Apache clan which once claimed this land as its own. Sitting on high desert hills astride busy state Highway 180, Buckhorn has a population of less than 250 people yet features the Country Kitchen Cafe, a full-service RV park, a mechanic's garage with road service and a sure-enough Old West style mercantile center, the Buckhorn Trading Post.
Eight miles south of Buckhorn on Highway 180 is the combined communities of Cliff and Gila. Cliff, situated along the highway, has a resident population of nearly 400 and includes a tiny commercial center that includes the Doughnuts and Sandwich Cafe, a building which will soon house the North American Trapper's Museum, and the area's only gas station. Also in Cliff is the region's educational center, the Cliff Schools, which include grades Kindergarten to 12th and one of New Mexico's hottest male and female basketball teams.
But Cliff is seemingly just a gateway to its alter ego sister community of Gila. Nestled within a lush, beautiful "valley within a valley" on the banks of the Gila River, this is one of those rare places found in rural New Mexico - a fertile garden surrounded by desert and mountains. The Gila River, which exits the mountains and winds gently through the small valley, nurtures green pastures, innumerable cottonwood stands, and fertile river bosques. All of this vegetation highlights the rosy escarpments and canyons of the nearby Mogollons. Here is a landscape painter's paradise!
The valley's small community (population 350) also boasts an excellent restaurant, the busy Valley Market and Feed Store, and the nearby Double E Buffalo and Cattle Ranch, a year-round dude ranch with honest-to-God cattle drives and buffalo.
Gila is also the jumping off center for sports lovers. Packers, fishers and hikers can enter the western edge of the massive Gila National Wilderness area either through the beautiful Box Canyon Trail Head or through the more challenging assortment of trails at nearby Turkey Creek. The region abounds in natural hot spring pools and fishing holes. Rafters and kayakers often end venturesome trips here which began many twisting miles before at the Gila Cliff Dwellings.
These three small communities reflect a unique blend of different yet kindred souls who have chosen the "inconvenience" of a remote yet beautiful area for its spirit and its majesty.
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