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The cliffside stone-and-masonry homes of a late-13C Mogollon agricultural village are preserved within this park, a narrow, winding, 2hr drive from Silver City. In a side canyon above the West Fork of the Gila River, in a half-dozen shallow caves in a sandstone bluff, are 42 mostly intact rooms, believed to have housed as many as 50 Indians. A loop trail (1mi) climbs 175ft to the dwellings, giving visitors a rare glimpse of a prehistoric culture.The Mogollon were fine builders. Stones were anchored by clay mortar, roof beams cut with stone adzes and shaped by fire. The people hunted and tended fields of corn, squash and beans in the rich soil of the Gila floodplain.The dwellings were occupied for only a generation. But relics of thousands of years of settlement can be found nearby. Rangers staffing a visitor center, 1.5mi from the cliff dwellings trailhead, can direct the curious to various locations.