If you’ve ever stood in the middle of the Tularosa Basin in mid-July, you know the heat isn't just a suggestion. It’s a physical weight. Now, imagine surviving that without air conditioning, or even a solid brick wall, back in 800 AD. Most people asking what type of home did the jornada tribe live in expect a simple answer like "a teepee" or "a tent."
They’re wrong.
The Jornada Mogollon—a branch of the wider Mogollon culture that settled in what we now call West Texas, Southern New Mexico, and Northern Chihuahua—didn't just build houses. They engineered thermal sanctuaries. They lived in pithouses. Later, as their society shifted toward intensive farming, they transitioned into surface pueblos. But the story of how they lived is way more complex than just "digging a hole."
What Type of Home Did the Jornada Tribe Live In During the Early Years?
In the beginning, specifically the Mesilla Phase (roughly 400 to 1100 AD), the Jornada Mogollon were big on pithouses. Think of these as semi-subterranean dwellings. They weren't primitive bunkers. Actually, they were remarkably efficient.
Basically, the builders would dig a circular or rectangular pit into the hard desert soil. We’re talking maybe two to four feet deep. Why? Soil is a world-class insulator. In the brutal heat of a Chihuahuan Desert summer, the earth stays cool. In the winter, when the desert wind tries to strip the skin off your face, the earth holds the day's warmth.
The structure above the pit was a feat of desert engineering. They used heavy wooden posts—usually whatever was available locally like juniper or mesquite—to support a roof. They’d weave smaller branches and reeds (latillas) over the frame and then plaster the whole thing with a thick layer of mud called "adobe." Once that mud baked in the sun, it became a hard, waterproof shell.
Entry was usually through the roof. You’d climb down a ladder, which also served as a chimney for the central hearth. Imagine the smell of roasting agave and pinyon smoke trapped in a cool, earthen room while the sun blazes at 105 degrees outside. It was cozy. It was smart.
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The Shift to Surface Living
Around 1100 to 1200 AD, things changed. This is what archaeologists call the El Paso Phase. The Jornada Mogollon started moving out of the ground.
They began building contiguous rooms on the surface. These weren't the massive stone skyscrapers you see at Chaco Canyon or Mesa Verde. Jornada pueblos were mostly made of puddled adobe. Instead of making individual bricks, they’d pile up wet mud in layers, letting each layer dry before adding the next.
These villages could be huge. Some sites, like the Firecracker Pueblo near El Paso, had dozens of rooms. These weren't just "houses." They were interconnected hubs for storage, sleeping, and ritual. You’d have a series of rooms grouped around a central plaza.
Honestly, the transition is a bit of a mystery. Why leave the thermal comfort of a pithouse for a surface room that’s harder to keep cool? Most experts, like those who have studied the Hueco Tanks area, suggest it was about social organization. As they relied more on corn, beans, and squash, they needed more storage space. You can’t just keep digging holes forever; eventually, you need a complex.
Materials Matter: Building with What the Desert Gives
The Jornada Mogollon were masters of "use what you find." You didn't have Home Depot. You had rock, mud, and scrub brush.
In the mountain ranges like the Organ Mountains or the Sierras near Ruidoso, they might use more stone in their foundations. But down in the basins? It was all about the caliche. Caliche is this crusty, calcium-carbonate-rich soil common in the Southwest. When you mix it with water and straw, it becomes incredibly durable.
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- Roofing: They used agave stalks, desert willow, and even yucca fibers to create the matting that held the mud roof up.
- Floors: Most floors were just packed earth, but in some high-status rooms, they’d actually plaster the floors with caliche to make them white and smooth.
- Storage: They built "mealing bins" right into the floors. These were stone-lined spots where women would grind corn using manos and metates.
It’s easy to look at these ruins now—which often just look like melted mounds of dirt—and think they were flimsy. They weren't. An adobe wall a foot thick can last centuries if it’s maintained. The only reason we don't see more of them today is that once the people left, the rain slowly reclaimed the mud.
The Mystery of the Abandonment
By 1450 AD, the Jornada Mogollon were gone.
Not dead, necessarily, but they stopped building these specific types of homes. The pueblos were abandoned. The pithouses filled with sand. Where did they go?
Most evidence points to a massive drought that made the Tularosa Basin uninhabitable for farmers. They likely moved toward the Rio Grande or joined other Puebloan groups like the Tigua or the people at Casas Grandes in Chihuahua. They took their building knowledge with them.
The architecture tells the story of a people who were deeply in tune with their environment. They didn't try to fight the desert; they lived in it. When you look at the "Spanish" style of architecture that dominates El Paso or Las Cruces today, you’re looking at a direct descendant of the Jornada Mogollon’s puddled adobe techniques.
Misconceptions About Jornada Housing
One thing people get wrong is thinking they lived in "caves." While they definitely used rock shelters—like the ones at Hueco Tanks—for ceremonies and temporary shelter, those weren't their primary homes. The rock art at Hueco Tanks shows their spiritual world, but their "real" lives happened in the pithouses and pueblos out on the flats.
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Another mistake? Assuming they were nomadic. Because the desert is harsh, people think they must have moved around like the later Apache groups. While they did hunt and gather, the Jornada Mogollon were settled. You don't build a 40-room adobe pueblo if you plan on leaving in three weeks. They were invested in the land.
How to See These Homes Today
If you’re a history nerd or just want to see the "real deal," you can’t just walk into a preserved Jornada village like you can at a National Park in Colorado. Because adobe is fragile, most sites are protected or backfilled to prevent erosion.
However, you can get a very good sense of their world at the El Paso Museum of Archaeology at Wilderness Park. They have reconstructed pithouses that show you exactly how the timber and mud worked together.
Also, a trip to Hueco Tanks State Historic Site is essential. While you won't see standing pueblo walls, you see the "kitchens"—the bedrock mortars where they processed the food that fueled the construction of their homes. You see the landscape that dictated why they built the way they did.
Actionable Insights for the History Traveler
If you’re interested in the archaeology of the Southwest, keep these points in mind for your next trip:
- Look for the mounds: In the desert, a perfectly circular or rectangular mound that looks slightly "out of place" is often a collapsed pithouse or pueblo.
- Respect the artifacts: If you find pottery sherds (usually brownware or the famous El Paso Poly-chrome), leave them. Their location tells archaeologists more than the object itself.
- Visit in the "Off-Season": To truly appreciate why they lived in pithouses, visit a desert site in February. You’ll feel the warmth of the earth. Visit in July, and you’ll realize why being three feet underground was a literal lifesaver.
- Study the "Mogollon Rim": To understand the Jornada branch, you have to understand the bigger picture. Compare their adobe work to the stone masonry of the Mimbres Mogollon further west. The difference is purely down to what rocks were available.
The Jornada Mogollon were masters of the "earthen home." Their legacy isn't in grand stone monuments, but in the very soil of the Southwest, shaped by hand into shelters that defied the sun.
Next Steps for Your Research:
Check out the Texas Beyond History digital archive maintained by the University of Texas at Austin. It contains the most detailed excavation reports on Jornada sites like the Firecracker Pueblo and the Three Rivers petroglyphs, providing a deep look at the floor plans and household items found within these ancient desert homes.