Good roads lead into the Gila National Forest at Reserve and Alma from U.S. Highway 260. An enjoyable loop trip which touches the Gila Wilderness at Willow Creek can be taken on State Highway 78 from Alma. Another beautiful trip is through the Black Range from the junction of State Highway 180 and U.S. Highway 85 to Silver City. Approach to the Gila from the north can be made through Beaverhead, Apache Creek, and Reserve, where good roads lead into the Forest. Fifteen developed recreation areas provide camping and picnicking for the hiker, horseback rider, and motorist and are complete with fireplaces, tables, and benches. Elk, deer, antelope, bear, javelina, and game birds are plentiful, and fishing in the high mountain creeks is usually rewarded with a satisfying catch. District ranger stations are at Magdalena, Truth or Consequences, Reserve, Glenwood, and Mimbres. Apache and Coronado Forests Although small parts of these forests lie in New Mexico, they belong to forests in Arizona. Apache National Forest touches the northern edge of the Gila and its attractions are much like those of the latter. The Coronado National Forest, which is in the extreme southwest corner of New Mexico, lies in an area of aridity and is difficult to reach from New Mexico. It is surrounded by Sonoran desert, at least in its environment in this state. [Illustration: Gila Hunters with Happy Thanksgiving (_wild turkeys_)] These far-flung public lands in New Mexico provide many resources besides varied kinds of outdoor recreation: timber for industry, water for city and farm, forage for livestock and wildlife. As long as our National Forests are protected and developed—used but not abused—they will continue to yield rich harvests, both tangible and intangible, forever. [Illustration: Lake Roberts This 70-acre lake thirty miles northeast of Silver City on State Highway 25 lies in the Gila National Forest.] The State Also Preserves[4] State Monuments have been established to preserve some of New Mexico’s historic and archeologic sites of importance. These include the mission ruins of Abo, Quarai, Pecos, and Jemez, the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe, pueblo ruins at Coronado State Monument, the old Lincoln County Courthouse, the archeologic site at Folsom Man State Monument, the plaza and nearby Mexican Colonial-style buildings in La Mesilla, and Fort Selden. The history recorded at these sites dates from 10,000 B.C. of Clovis Man to 1878 of the cattlemen’s Lincoln County War.