Rubbin' Elbows with Billy the Kid

Wednesday,, October 12

Today we are off in pursuit of John’s western town complete with wooden board walks, sheriff’s office, saloon, hotel  and blacksmith shop.  Is there such a place?  We’ll let you know.  We are heading to Lincoln, home of Billy the Kid.

Our first stop was in Capitan, New Mexico, home of Smokey the Bear.   

 

Yes, Smokey was a real bear.  He was a five pound, two month old bear cub with burned

paws when they found him after the Capitan 

Gap Fire in 1950.   

He was given the name Smokey and added as the mascot to the National Fire Prevention program.   

Smokey was transferred to the National Zoo in Washington DC where he lived for 26 years. Upon his death, he was returned to Capitan, New Mexico where he was buried at what is now the Smokey Bear Historical Park.

Our next stop of the day brought us as close as we are going to get to an old western town.  According to the ranger at the site,  Lincoln is considered by many historians to be the most authentic old west town remaining in the United States.   Lincoln,  New Mexico’s claim to fame is that it was the home of  Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett, the sheriff who shot and killed the notorious outlaw.

Lincoln had quite a history of violence all stemming from two business men who each owned a mercantile store.  Each wanting to monopolize the business,  they hired gunslingers to fight each other.  This led to the Lincoln County War from 1878 – 1881. Billy the Kid was hired by one of the men and became part of a group called ‘The Regulators.’  Billy was captured and held at the Lincoln Courthouse until he escaped and in the process killed his two guards.  Sheriff Pat Garrett caught up with him two months later and in a shoot out, killed Billy the Kid.   

  

one of the deputies Billy shot during his escape

The legendary bullet hole in the courthouse wall from Billy's gun.

So we toured the small town of Lincoln and many of the original buildings from this historic time. 

San Juan mission

town

school house

One of the most impressive was the courthouse (which was originally one of the mercantile stores) where Billy was held and escaped.

courthouse/mercantile

Just as we were about to leave town ~ the sheriff and his posse arrived!

just keepin' Lincoln safe

 This is a group of guys from all over the country that are just passionate about the Old West.  They travel to different historic sites and play the role. We just happened to be lucky enough to see them which really added to the authenticity of the town for John.

We drove on to Alamogordo and tried something new, a cabin. Rather than set up the tent we rented this cabin at the RV park.  We had electric and didn't have to set it up or take it down and it was only $15 more than a tent site.