The Gila River: Lifeline of the Southwest

The Gila River (pronounced HEE-lah or HYE-lah) flows ~649 miles across western New Mexico and southern Arizona, draining a 58,000-square-mile watershed before joining the Colorado River near Yuma.

Key Characteristics

• Headwaters: Black Range (Mogollon Mountains), NM—Gila Wilderness (world's first designated wilderness, 1924).
• Flow regime: Highly variable—snowmelt floods, monsoon flashes, long dry stretches; heavily diverted for agriculture.
• Ecology: Cottonwood-willow riparian corridors (critical for southwestern birds); native fish (loach minnow, spikedace, Gila trout).
• Human history: Hohokam irrigation canals (ancestral Puebloans); Apache homeland; Mormon settlement; modern water wars.

Current Status

One of the Southwest's last major free-flowing segments (Cliff-Gila Valley) faces proposed diversion projects. Conservationists argue for protecting its ecological, recreational, and cultural values—New Mexico's "last wild river."