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| Not Numbered. | Grant County | Visited: September 29, 2018 | Plaque? YES! 🙂 |
| What is it? | A sign at the entrance of the Mimbres Valley! |
| What makes it historical? | THE SIGN SAYS: People have lived in the Mimbres Valley since at least 2000 BC and probably earlier. Small villages of farmers lived in pithouses—underground single-family structures—by AD 200. Around AD 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 AD 1130, but Pueblo peoples left the region by AD 1450. The last indigenous occupants were Apaches who lived here through the late 1800s.
OTHER TIDBITS: “Mimbres,” which is Spanish for “willows,” is a sub-group of the larger Mogollon culture! It can either refer to the culture that centered around the Gila River and Mimbres Valley, or the time period (1000–1450 CE) in which they did so! Much like the Ancestral Puebloan people, the Mimbres Mogollon disappeared mysteriously from this region, leaving behind their art and their pueblos for later generations to puzzle over! |
| How can I Help the Helpers? | HERE’S HOW:
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| How do I find it? | Listed Directions: This marker is so new that it hasn’t even been listed yet! Annotations: From Albuquerque: ~213mi (343km) — 3.6hrs |
| When should I go? | Whenever the mood strikes you! |