Mimbres Valley

People have lived in the Mimbres Valley since at least 2000 B.C. and probably earlier. Small villages of farmers lived in pithouses—underground single-family structures—by A.D 200. Around A.D. 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 A.D. 1130, but Pueblo peoples left the region by A.D. 1450. The last indigenous occupants were Apaches who lived here through the late 1800s.