Lincoln County, NM

On Friday, we decided to drive the "Billy the Kid National Byway" which goes from just outside Ruidoso, NM, over to Capitan, and back through Ruidoso, then to Cloudcroft, completing the circle. Traveling up to Cloudcroft (elevation 8600 ft.), we turned off on 244, which goes through the Mescalero Indian Reservation. The road was curvy, and we lost elevation rapidly, as we traveled through beautiful cool tall pines down to high green meadows, and onto the reservation. We stopped at a place called "Grandma's Kitchen", to have some Indian Frybread. It was delicious and something which we definitely did NOT need (fried in grease) and drizzled with honey. Then on through the crowded town of Ruidoso, with all its tourist-trap shops. We gradually continued to lose elevation and noticed that the pine trees stopped, with juniper and various cacti taking their place.

Now I'm not too interested in a punk outlaw (aka Billy the Kid), but I was interested in the Lincoln county wars. Apparently, during the late 1870's, the Murphys and Dolans ran a store which was the only game in town. They were accused of cheating the Indians, the army, and the townspeople. A man named Tunstall, from England, came to town and joined up with a man named McSween. They opened a store of their own. John Chisum owned the largest cattle ranch in the country, over toward Roswell, and sided with the Murphys and Dolans. After much bravado and threats by the Murphy/Dolans, Mr. Tunstall refused to fight, but hired Billy the Kid (unofficially) to be the "cattle guard". To make a long story short, the sheriff of Lincoln County, William Brady, and his posse, shot Mr. Tunstall in the head. Billy the Kid swore revenge because Mr. Tunstall had treated him kindly. The shooting of Mr. Tunstall ignited the Lincoln County wars. President Rutherford B. Hays once called the road through Lincoln the deadliest stretch of road in the United States.

The story is long, convoluted and gained national notoriety, but finally, things settled down after President Hays replaced the alleged corrupt governor of New Mexico. Billy the Kid was confined in the Lincoln County Courthouse and escaped, killing a deputy. He was tracked to Fort Sumner and killed by Pat Garrett. Nineteen people lost their lives in the Lincoln County wars.

Most of the buildings are still standing, including the court house. It is now a museum. There are bullet holes in the walls where Billy the Kid escaped and killed J. W. Bell just outside the court house.

You will note the round adobe brick building with small turret holes. This was built by Mexican settlers to defend themselves against the Apaches and Commanches in the area, in the years prior to white settlement.

We took pictures of several structures, including the court house, the Tunstall store, and the Murphy store, and Dr. Wood's house, which has been preserved just as it was when Dr. Wood passed on. We saw old pictures of the houses and they looked just about the same today as they did back then.

Leaving Lincoln, we then headed to Capitan, to Smokey Bear's burial site. There was a nice museum there and much information about forest fires. We left Capitan and were able to get a good shot of Sierra Blanca, elevation 12,003 feet, which is a famous ski resort area just outside Ruidoso.

By the time we got home to Mayhill and our comfy RV, our feet were killing us and we were glad to sit back and relax. As a matter of fact, I got so relaxed that I didn't get these pictures downloaded and blogged until Sunday afternoon!