The Gila River is 1,014 km (630 miles) long. It rises in the mountains of western New Mexico and flows west across Arizona to the Colorado River at Yuma, Arizona. The San Francisco River is its main tributary.
The Gila valley was occupied by the ancestors of the Pima and Papago ethnic groups, who farmed the region by irrigation. The ruins of their dwellings are preserved in Casa Grande Ruins and Gila Cliff Dwellings national monuments. In the river's headwater region are Gila National Forest and the government-preserved 'unimproved' Gila Wilderness Area. The Gila and its tributaries have many dams to provide flood control, hydroelectricity and water for irrigation in the arid Southwest. Coolidge and Painted Rock dams are the largest dams on the Gila River. Gila monsters, poisonous reptiles, are numerous in the Gila valley.
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