Mimbres River

About the Mimbres River

• The Mimbres River rises at about 10,000 feet in the Aldo Leopold Wilderness of the Gila National Forest and flows roughly 40 miles across southwestern New Mexico.1
• It is a closed-basin desert stream: its surface water never leaves the Mimbres River basin, terminating in the Chihuahuan Desert grasslands near the Mexican border.1
• The valley lends its name to the prehistoric Mimbres culture, whose Classic-period potters, working from about 1000 to 1130 CE, produced the distinctive Mimbres Black-on-white pottery the tradition is best known for.2

This report follows 97 miles (156 km) of the Mimbres River, all within the Mimbres watershed segment. At the lower end of the report the river drains about 1,452 square miles. Named tributaries joining it here include the Gavilan Arroyo, East Fork Mimbres River, West Fork Mimbres River and South Fork Mimbres River. Largest urban areas near it: Deming and Bayard. 6 gauges with at least 26 weeks of daily flow cover 1930 to 2026.

From the archive: NHDPlus river network, WBD watersheds, NHD waterbodies, TIGER urban areas and the report's gauges.

From the headwaters down

Each watershed segment in order, with last week's flow rated against the same week in 1991–2020.

1. 1

   Segment 1: Mimbres

   11 cfs last week normal.

   Towns: Deming.

   Median conductance 153 µS/cm in the 2020s. Rain over the last 3 months: 154% of normal.

Culture

• The Classic Mimbres period, from about 1000 to 1130 CE, is defined by Mimbres Black-on-white pottery; the tradition used a highly standardized design layout and symmetry that was unusual for the ancient Southwest, where neighboring groups more often exchanged decorated ceramics to display social ties.2

Habitat

• The Mimbres watershed, from its high-elevation headwaters to the Chihuahuan Desert grasslands near the Mexican border, includes forests of Douglas fir and ponderosa pine, piñon-juniper savanna, desert grasslands and Chihuahuan desert scrub, with riparian forest, cienegas (desert marshes) and springs along stream reaches that are perennial, intermittent or ephemeral.1
• The Mimbres River Basin is home to two federally threatened species, the Chihuahua chub and the Chiricahua leopard frog, both of which prefer open-water pools and slow-moving water.3
• Starting in 2012, the Nature Conservancy, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and New Mexico Department of Game and Fish restored Moreno Spring, a former Mimbres River channel, by digging 14 open-water pools; by August 2016 researchers were finding leopard frog egg masses and more than 100 adult frogs there, and the Chihuahua chub population in the Mimbres has increased since 2020.3
• The river also supports cottonwood-willow forest and sacaton floodplain grassland among its riparian habitats, home to species such as the Rio Grande sucker and desert viceroy butterfly.1

Reservoirs

No reservoir with 500 acre-feet or more of storage on this river in the National Inventory of Dams.

Water users

• Irrigated agriculture in the Mimbres Valley diverts water from the river at several points, supporting small apple orchards and a few vineyards, according to a 2013 hydrological characterization of the basin.4
• Groundwater pumping to irrigate crops in the desert has dropped the water table 20 to 80 feet near Deming over about 200 square miles, and 20 to 120 feet east of Columbus over about 80 square miles, the same report found.4

Surface water withdrawn, 2020

In the counties this river crosses (Grant, Luna): 29,925 acre-feet. County totals include other streams.

State Engineer, New Mexico Water Use by Categories 2020.

Public water systems beside the river

Deming Municipal Water System, Casas Adobes MDWCA, Desert Vista RV Village, Pecan Park MDWCA

State Engineer's public water systems layer (service areas within 2 km).