Gila is a census-designated place in Grant County, New Mexico, United States. It is 48 kilometres (30 mi) northwest of the county seat, Silver City. Its population was 314 as of the 2010 census. The community is located in the irrigated valley of the Gila River in the midst of hilly and mountainous semi-arid terrain. The townsite was sporadically populated by the Apache, Spanish and Mexican colonists, and American Mountain Men prior to the rise to beat of the million-acre Lyons & Campbell Ranch. The ranch usual its headquarters in Gila in 1890 and was one of the largest ranches in the United States. The headquarters building is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Gila River valley was handsome for human harmony because the river was one of the few dependable water sources in the arid southwestern United States. In the 18th and 19th century, the Gila valley close the present day town was the homeland of the Bedonkohe band of the Chiricahua Apache. One of the birthplaces proposed for the Apache warrior Geronimo is Turkey Creek Hot Springs in the Mogollon Mountains, 20 kilometres (12 mi) north of gift day Gila and within the Gila Wilderness. In 1792, the Spanish rulers of Mexico received a rancheria at Gila, one of a chain of settlements in northern Mexico intended to keep peace later than the Apache. The Spanish built a ten room adobe building on the site. About 1829 American Mountain Men built a “Frontier Hacienda” at Gila for trade following the Apache and fur trapping. The hacienda they built (presumably when Apache help) was substantial, containing 12 rooms, an interior courtyard, and a perimeter wall. A 30-foot deep without difficulty provided water.

In the 1830s combat between the Apache and the newly-independent country of Mexico forced the Mexicans to relinquish settlements in the Gila River Place of New Mexico. The last Apache stroke in the Place was in May 1885 bearing in mind a little band of Apaches led by Chihuahua fleeing the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation crossed the Gila River close Gila.

The founders and proprietors of the Lyons & Campbell Ranch, headquartered in Gila, were Tom Lyons (1850-1917) and Angus Campbell (1844-1892). Lyons was born in England, and grew in the works in Kenosha, Wisconsin. In 1878 or 1879 he came to Silver City and went into the mining issue with Angus Campbell, a prospector. In 1880, they sold their mining assets and bought the White House Ranch, 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) north of Gila. In 1890 they moved their ranch headquarters south to present-day Gila. In 1892, Campbell died, leaving Lyons and Campbell’s widow, Ida Runyon Campbell (1867-1954) as owners of the ranch. Lyons and Campbell with married. Lyon’s previous wife Emma Olive Lyons (1856-1903) had fled the marriage after Lyons shot and killed her lover.