Welcome to the Hidden Valley Ranch RV Resort, located near Deming, New Mexico. One of the interesting aspects of this RV Park is the collection of early Mimbres Mogollon petroglyphs.

The Mimbres was a branch of the Mogollon that inhabited the region from Deming, New Mexico and northward to Silver City, New Mexico. The Mimbres arrived in the area around AD 900. The pottery shards recovered at the Hidden Valley Ranch display the evolutionary transition from plain pottery, to the more evolved painted geometric designs. The petroglyphs found near the Hidden Valley Ranch represented early patterns of lizards, hands with five fingers, circles, leaf patterns, and patterns of geometric designs.

The carved petroglyphs are at the same site as the ruins of pithouses and grinding pits. The descendants of the Mimbres probably migrated into the Anasazi-Pueblo culture centered on the Colorado Plateau to the north.

The second photo on the right are two of the grinding pits used by the Mimbres women to grind seeds into flour for cooking. We found about a dozen of these grinding pits around the outcropping where the petroglyphs were carved. The sixth photo was taken of BooBoo inside the sheltered fire pit located within the campsite used by the Mimbres people. Generally each encampment was composed of some ten to fifteen families. We found the site we believe to have been one of their pithouses located in front of two large outcropping of stones boulders. The petroglyphs were found only on these two outcropping and nowhere else in the immediate area. We know because we hiked all over the area searching for more rock art.

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