Cibola National Forest - Pueblo Ruins

 

Large wall on the second ridge

Gallinas Mountains

Double wall on the second ridge

I don't remember exactly how came to know about this particular site. Most likely I was reading about some other site and there was some brief mention which sparked my curiosity, which usually leads to me trying to figure where the site actually is using Google Earth and further research. I had placed a lot of pins near Indian Tank ( a kind of giveaway just like Ruins Windmill over on the far eastern part of the Cibola). Then, I kind of put it on the back burner. My interest was rekindled after watching a talk given by an archaeologist from the Arizona State Museum who theorizes that the larger public architecture ruins in this area ( known as the Lion Mountain Community, it's not really a big secret as you might have guessed) have many characteristics in common with Chacoan great houses.  Many of my speculative pins on Google Earth were confirmed and I began to feel a bit of urgency about visiting the site.

The Lion Mountain Community site is about four miles west of the better known pueblo ruin at Gallinas Spring which we had visited back in 2020. I remembered the road out there came up pretty quickly on the left once I had turned onto NM 169, but as I approached the first turn off I saw a blue street sign that said "Montoya Ranch Rd." which I did not remember, so I thought I was mistaken. I should have trusted my instincts. Instead I wasted 15 or more minutes looking for the turn-off for  FR 10. Oddly enough, several of the other forest roads that connect to NM 169 have signs right on the highway,  whereas FR 10 (one of the more well used roads in this part of the Cibola NF) does not. I finally made up my mind that the Montosa Ranch Road is FR !0, which was confirmed upon turning and seeing a small sign that indicated  as much attached to one of the gateposts.

  FR 10 is a reasonably wide, maintained road for the first 10 miles or so. Just past a major fork where the left branch heads towards private property and FR 10 crosses a dry creek bed and ascends a ridge , the driving conditions change significantly. The road bed narrows to a single lane, while its surface changes from dirt and gravel to cobble sized rocks. I had been cruising along, probably averaging  over 30 miles per hour,  but now I was lucky to hit a top speed of 15.  Piñon and juniper thickly lined the winding roadway on the ridge, obscuring long range views. At one point though, when the route skirted the very edge of the ridge, lovely views of the hills and valleys of this Gallinas range opened up for few moments to the northeast. The sandy ravines that we crossed had ponderosa pines that were quite stout, in fact they were larger than might be expected given that these lower elevation mountains are without permanent streams or even very many perennial springs. I passed the road that took us town to Gallinas Canyon (and the ruin) five years ago. It was in horrendous shape then, and now it had heavy locked gate and Road Closed sign. In fact, on the return drive, I noticed that FR 10 had been re-routed through this section most likely due to flood damage.

Not counting the time wasted finding FR 10, the drive of approximately 18 miles to Indian Tank took about one hour, which should give any of you out there who are thinking of visiting whether or not it will be worth your while.

 I parked near the tank, which had a decent amount of water from several good November rains. I quickly assessed the two ridges (where a good number or the larger ruins are located, although there are many sites for several square miles in the vicinity of Indian Tank) in front of me. My plan was to visit both and I opted for the one on  my right first and began hoofing upwards at a good pace as I really wasn't going to have a lot of time if I wanted to make it to the cabin at Horse Mountain before dark (I had driven up from Las Cruces that morning, and it was now already the lunch hour). Shortly, I came upon one and then another small ruin made of unshaped locally derived rock. Room blocks were vaguely discernible. There were many, but very small pottery fragments ( much of it varied corrugated types) and lithic fragments visible in the sandy areas that were free of grass.  I continued up the slope threading through the pines.

Smaller ruin

 Second smaller ruin

 On top, it wasn't long till I was at  one of the so-called great house ruin areas. The only wall work rubble that I could see was on one side backing up to a length of bedrock outcroppings. There were great views off to the west from this point which I did not, but should have photoed.  The extensive area of red dirt and bedrock in front of the wall was s mostly devoid of grass ( perhaps given that there was only a very thin veneer of soil left).  Once again the  pottery fragments were very small, dull colored corrugated pieces. I tried to imagine the outline of a curved wall before me that would give this site the D-shape of a great house, but, although there were sunken stones visible in places, it was definitely not obvious. I moved on, crossing the gully that runs between the two ridges, finding a few stray painted sherds along the way.

Painted sherd

Painted sherd

The three fragments above look like they could come from the same pot but they were found in widely spaced locales.

Climbing up the hill, I passed some massive stone piles, but couldn't make up my mind whether they were human-generated or natural. On top I found the long semi-circular wall ( part of it is double wall) that is visible on Google Earth. There were very few readily visible  surface artifacts again. I found a few more wall remnants, and decided I had done what I had I come to do, and began to head down. Now there's whole lot more to the story of this trip, but I will leave that for another blog.