Gila, New Mexico

{{Use American English|date=July 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2023}} {{Infobox settlement |official_name = Gila, New Mexico |settlement_type = Census-designated place |nickname = |motto = |image_skyline = |imagesize = |image_caption = |image_flag = |image_seal = |image_map = |mapsize = |map_caption = |image_map1 = |mapsize1 = |map_caption1 = |pushpin_map = New Mexico#USA |pushpin_label = Gila |subdivision_type = Country |subdivision_type1 = State |subdivision_type2 = County |subdivision_name = United States |subdivision_name1 = New Mexico |subdivision_name2 = Grant |government_type = |leader_title = |leader_name = |established_title = |established_date = |unit_pref = Imperial |population_footnotes = <ref name="USCensusDecennial2020CenPopScriptOnly"/> |area_footnotes = <ref name="TigerWebMapServer">{{cite web|title=ArcGIS REST Services Directory|url=https://tigerweb.geo.census.gov/arcgis/rest/services/TIGERweb/Places_CouSub_ConCity_SubMCD/MapServer/5/query?where=STATE='35'&outFields=NAME,STATE,PLACE,AREALAND,AREAWATER,LSADC,CENTLAT,CENTLON&orderByFields=PLACE&returnGeometry=false&returnTrueCurves=false&f=json|publisher=United States Census Bureau|accessdate=October 12, 2022}}</ref> |area_total_sq_mi = 9.39 |area_total_km2 = 24.33 |area_land_sq_mi = 9.36 |area_land_km2 = 24.25 |area_water_sq_mi = 0.03 |area_water_km2 = 0.08 |population_as_of = 2020 |population_total = 285 |population_metro = |population_density_km2 = 11.75 |population_density_sq_mi = 30.44 |timezone = MST |utc_offset = -7 |timezone_DST = MDT |utc_offset_DST = -6 |coordinates = {{coord|32|56|55|N|108|34|34|W|region:US-NM|display=inline, title}} |elevation_footnotes = <ref name=gnis/> |elevation_ft = 4620 |postal_code_type = ZIP code |postal_code = 88038 |area_code = 575 |blank_name = FIPS code |blank_info = 35-17-29160 |blank1_name = GNIS feature ID |blank1_info = 2584102<ref name=gnis>{{GNIS|2584102}}</ref> |footnotes = |website = }}

'''Gila''' is a census-designated place (CDP) in Grant County, New Mexico, United States. It is {{convert|48|km|miles}} northwest of the county seat, Silver City. Its population was 285 as of the 2020 census.<ref name="USCensusDecennial2020CenPopScriptOnly"/> The community is located in the irrigated valley of the Gila River in the midst of hilly and mountainous semi-arid terrain. The townsite was sporadically populated by the Apache, Spanish and Mexican colonists, and American mountain men prior to the rise to prominence of the million-acre Lyons & Campbell Ranch. The ranch established its headquarters in Gila in 1890 and was one of the largest ranches in the United States. The headquarters building is on the National Register of Historic Places.

==History== The Gila River valley was attractive for human settlement because the river was one of the few dependable water sources in the arid southwestern United States. In the 18th and 19th century, the Gila valley near the present day town was the homeland of the Bedonkohe band of the Chiricahua Apache. One of the birthplaces proposed for the Apache warrior Geronimo is Turkey Creek Hot Springs in the Mogollon Mountains, {{convert|20|km|mile}} north of present day Gila and within the Gila Wilderness. In 1792, the Spanish rulers of Mexico established a rancheria at Gila, one of a chain of settlements in northern Mexico designed to keep peace with the Apache. The Spanish built a ten room adobe building on the site.<ref name="New Mexico True">{{cite web |title=Lyon & Campbell Ranch Headquarters |url=https://www.newmexico.org/listing/lyons-%26-campbell-ranch-headquarters/217/ |website=New Mexico True |accessdate=1 Nov 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Geronimo Trail National Scenic Byway |url=https://geronimotrail.com/geronimo/ |website=Sierra County New Mexico}}</ref> About 1829 American mountain men built a "frontier hacienda" at Gila for trade with the Apache and fur trapping. The hacienda they built (presumably with Apache help) was substantial, containing 12 rooms, an interior courtyard, and a perimeter wall. A 30-foot deep well provided water.<ref name="Lyons & Campbell Ranch Headquarters">{{cite web |title=History |url=https://www.lyonscampbellranch.com/history |website=Lyons & Campbell Ranch Headquarters |accessdate=1 November 2020 |archive-date=September 23, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200923214927/https://www.lyonscampbellranch.com/history |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In the 1830s warfare between the Apache and the newly-independent country of Mexico forced the Mexicans to abandon settlements in the Gila River area of New Mexico.<ref name="Griffen">{{cite book |last1=Griffen |first1=William B. |title=Apaches at War & Peace: The Janos Presidio |date=1988 |isbn=9780806130842 |publisher=University of New Mexico Press |location=Albuquerque |pages=157–176}}</ref> The last Apache raid in the area was in May 1885 when a small band of Apaches led by Chihuahua fleeing the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation crossed the Gila River near Gila.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sweeney |first1=Edwin R. |title=From Cochise to Geronimo |date=2010 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |location=Norman |isbn=9780806141503 |page=421}}</ref>

===Lyons & Campbell Ranch=== [[File:Portal East View, Lyons & Campbell ranch headquarters 01.jpg|thumb|250px|left|The east portal of the ranch headquarters, built of adobe.]] The founders and proprietors of the Lyons & Campbell Ranch, headquartered in Gila, were Tom Lyons (1850-1917) and Angus Campbell (1844-1892). Lyons was born in England, and grew up in Kenosha, Wisconsin. In 1878 or 1879 he came to Silver City and went into the mining business with Angus Campbell, a prospector. In 1880, they sold their mining assets and bought the White House Ranch, {{convert|15|km|mile}} north of Gila. In 1890 they moved their ranch headquarters south to present-day Gila. In 1892, Campbell died, leaving Lyons and Campbell's widow, Ida Runyon Campbell (1867-1954) as owners of the ranch. Lyons and Campbell subsequently married. Lyon's previous wife Emma Olive Lyons (1856-1903) had fled the marriage after Lyons shot and killed her lover.<ref>{{cite web|title=Lyons & Campbell Ranch Headquarters|url=https://www.lyonscampbellranch.com/history|access-date=November 3, 2020|archive-date=September 23, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200923214927/https://www.lyonscampbellranch.com/history|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In the 1890s the Lyons & Campbell Ranch, also called the L.C. Ranch, controlled more than {{convert|400000|ha|acre}} of land and owned 60,000 cattle. The ranchlands reached from near Silver City on the east, westward to the Arizona border and southward from near Mule Creek, New Mexico along both sides of the Gila River to the northern part of the Animas Valley. The ranch owned "100 wagons, 750 riding horses, 400 work horses, 75 cowboys in season, and three to six chuckwagons. The farming operation employed 100 Mexican families, most of them imported from Chihuahua."<ref name="National Inventory of Historic Places">{{cite web |title=L.C. Ranch Headquarters |url=https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/6499b807-89ea-41a4-95f5-5a9c6f8ea5ac |website=National Park Service |publisher=National Register of Historic Places Inventory |accessdate=3 November 2020}}</ref> thumb|250px|left|The saloon at the ranch headquarters.

At Gila, Lyons built his headquarters. He converted the existing 12 rooms of the frontier hacienda into his residence and office. He added another 15 lavishly furnished rooms for guests and entertaining. Attached to the living quarters or in separate buildings was a stable, barn, bunkhouse, store, post office, jail, foreman's house, and saloon. Lyon's bedroom featured a trapdoor where he could hide if necessary from his numerous enemies who might attempt to kill or kidnap him.<ref name="The Cattleman's Empire">{{cite book |title=The Cattleman's Empire |date=1959 |publisher=National Park Service |url=https://www.lyonscampbellranch.com/copy-of-history}}</ref>

Lyons was murdered in 1917 in El Paso, Texas by a hired assassin. The identity of the person who hired the assassin was never discovered. Parcels of the ranch were subsequently sold and only a {{convert|2|ha|acre}} parcel containing the headquarters buildings remain.<ref name="The Cattleman's Empire" /> In 1978 the property, partially restored, was added to the National Register of Historic Places.<ref name="nrhpdoc">{{cite web|url={{NRHP url|id=78001816}}|title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: L. C. Ranch Headquarters |publisher=National Park Service|author=Ellen Threinen |date=September 20, 1978 |accessdate=July 27, 2019}} With {{NRHP url|id=78001816|photos=y|title=accompanying seven photos from 1977}}</ref>

==Geography== thumb|220px|right|A typical landscape near Gila looking north to the Mogollon Mountains. The community of Gila sits near the center of a narrow irrigated strip of land, approximately {{convert|10|km|mile}} in length, along both sides of the Gila River. Upstream from Gila and the irrigated strip, the river emerges from the large and rugged Gila Wilderness and downstream it enters a crumpled landscape that is mostly uninhabited. The unincorporated community of Cliff is approximately {{convert|4|km|mile}} east of Gila.

===Climate=== Gila is a BSk (Semi-arid, cold steppe) climate under the Köppen Classification system. Measured by the Trewartha climate classification system the climate is BSak (semi arid steppe, hot summers, cool winters). One half of the average annual precipitation is received in the three months of July, August, and September. April and May are the driest months. Gila has 291 days with sunshine per year compared to an average of 205 days of sunshine for the U.S. as a whole.<ref>{{cite web |title=Gila, New Mexico |url=https://www.bestplaces.net/climate/city/new_mexico/gila#:~:text=On%20average%2C%20there%20are%20291,have%20to%20get%20at%20least%20 |website=Best Places |accessdate=1 November 2020}}</ref> {{Weather box |location = Gila, New Mexico. Station is {{convert|1488|m|ft}} above sea level |single line = Yes |metric first = Yes |Jan mean C = 3.6 |Feb mean C = 5.4 |Mar mean C = 8.2 |Apr mean C = 12.1 |May mean C = 16.6 |Jun mean C = 21.8 |Jul mean C = 24.2 |Aug mean C = 23.1 |Sep mean C = 19.8 |Oct mean C = 13.9 |Nov mean C = 7.6 |Dec mean C = 3.6 |year mean C = 13.3 |Jan high C = 13.1 |Feb high C = 15.5 |Mar high C = 18.7 |Apr high C = 23.3 |May high C = 28.2 |Jun high C = 33.2 |Jul high C = 33.6 |Aug high C = 32.0 |Sep high C = 29.7 |Oct high C = 24.5 |Nov high C = 18.1 |Dec high C = 13.2 |year high C = 23.6 |Jan low C = -6.0 |Feb low C = -4.7 |Mar low C = -2.3 |Apr low C = 0.8 |May low C = 5.1 |Jun low C = 10.3 |Jul low C = 14.9 |Aug low C = 14.2 |Sep low C = 10.1 |Oct low C = 3.4 |Nov low C = -2.9 |Dec low C = -6.1 |year low C = 3.1 |Jan precipitation mm = 26 |Feb precipitation mm = 24 |Mar precipitation mm = 20 |Apr precipitation mm = 9 |May precipitation mm = 9 |Jun precipitation mm = 14 |Jul precipitation mm = 69 |Aug precipitation mm = 72 |Sep precipitation mm = 43 |Oct precipitation mm = 32 |Nov precipitation mm = 18 |Dec precipitation mm = 29 |year precipitation mm = 365 |source = Weatherbase<ref>{{cite web |title=Gila, New Mexico |url= https://www.weatherbase.com/weather/weather.php3?s=19192&cityname=Gila-New-Mexico-United-States-of-America|accessdate=1 Nov 2020}}</ref> }}

==Demographics== {{US Census population |2010= 314 |2020= 285 |footnote=U.S. Decennial Census<ref name="DecennialCensus">{{cite web|url=http://www.census.gov/prod/www/decennial.html|title=Census of Population and Housing|publisher=Census.gov|accessdate=June 4, 2016}}</ref><ref name="USCensusDecennial2020CenPopScriptOnly">{{cite web|url=https://api.census.gov/data/2020/dec/pl?get=P1_001N%2CNAME&for=place%3A%2A&in=state%3A35|title=Census Population API|publisher=United States Census Bureau|accessdate=Oct 12, 2022}}</ref> }}

==Economics and culture==

Services in Gila include: post office, library, EMT and medical clinic, community center, senior center, library, and several churches. The Gila Valley Library contains 4,052 volumes. The library circulates 6,699 items per year and serves a rural population of 807 persons living in or near Gila and Cliff.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.librarytechnology.org/lwc-displaylibrary.pl?RC=37795 |title=Gila Valley Library -- Gila Valley Library |website=www.librarytechnology.org |access-date=17 December 2008}}</ref>

==Transportation==

===Major highways===

Gila can be accessed via NM 211 from US 180 north of Silver City. Also, NM 153 provides access to Turkey Creek.

==See also== {{portal|New Mexico}} * List of census-designated places in New Mexico

==References== {{reflist|22em}}

==External links== {{commons category-inline|Gila, New Mexico}}

Category:Census-designated places in Grant County, New Mexico Category:Census-designated places in New Mexico