Shooting Through New Mexico Cowboy Land

Gen. Lew Wallace, governor of the New Mexico Territory from 1878-81--the one who promised amnesty to Billy the Kid, then put a $500 reward on his head--wrote: “Every calculation based on experience elsewhere fails in New Mexico.”

That still sums up life in the state where the license plate slogan reads “Land of Enchantment.” Translate that: Southwest Twilight Zone. People are “different” in New Mexico. They always have been. Especially the cowboys.

A drive through eastern New Mexico--starting at Cimarron not far from the Colorado border, moving on to Las Vegas, N.M., then far south to the Capitan Mountains and Lincoln County--gives you some insight into colorful cowboy history.

Do a little background reading before you go (or even watch a video of “Young Guns”) and you’ll come home with a new appreciation of what the Wild West was about. For one thing, after you’ve covered 1,000 miles of that desert and mountainous terrain, you’ll know that if Billy was everywhere they said he was, he must have been perpetually saddle sore.

CIMARRON

Clay Allison sent 26 souls to their maker at the St. James Hotel in Cimarron in the 1880s and ‘90s. A frequent guest at the hotel, the Confederate soldier-turned-cowboy danced naked on the bar, shooting holes in the tin ceiling whenever he’d had too much to drink. (More than 100 years later, the bullet holes still pepper the ceiling of what is an excellent dining room--but the bar has been moved to the Parks Inn International in Taos.)

Henri Lambert, then the St. James owner-chef, served as battlefield cook for Gen. U.S. Grant, and later as White House chef for Abraham Lincoln before heading west to look for gold at Mt. Baldy. The Frenchman found the real source of riches to be providing superb food and luxurious lodging for the miners, ranchers and cowboys in the area.

It was enough to attract such guests as Buffalo Bill Cody, Annie Oakley, Tom Thumb and Thumbelina, who rehearsed their Wild West show in Cimarron before taking it on the road; Bat Masterson, Kit Carson, Zane Grey, Black Jack Ketchum and his gang, Jesse James, Wyatt Earp, Pat Garrett and, yes, a man who registered as William Bonney, a.k.a. Billy the Kid.

Photographs and short biographies of each are posted outside the rooms they are supposed to have occupied, which makes a tour of the hotel’s second floor a must, even if you don’t stay there. (If you can, do. Rooms are reasonably priced and are Victorian gems, right down to the original marble sinks and faucets.)

If you want to raise the hair on the back of your neck, cross the two-lane road from the St. James, pass the field where buffalo graze amidst wildflowers and go into the Old Mill Museum, Cimarron’s high-rise.

Climb the stairs to the second floor, walk over to the free-standing display in the center of the room and look for the newspaper coverage of train robber Black Jack Ketchum’s lynching. Look closely at those old photographs of the corpse after the execution. Is that his head laying there beside the body?

“Oh, yes,” confirms Buddy Morse, the museum curator. “Black Jack said they’d never hang him so he lunged forward just as the door dropped underneath him and decapitated himself. You might say he got the last laugh.”

Silver-haired, gold-tongued storyteller extraordinaire , Morse explains: “Cimarron takes its name from a corruption of the Spanish word for ‘wild, untamed.’ The good, bad and ugly all came here.”

The curator knows all the famed cowboys well, if only through hearing their stories from the late Fred Lambert (son of Henri), who grew up in the St. James before starting a career in law enforcement as a deputy at 16.

Morse likes telling Clay Allison stories. “Clay was no outlaw. He was an honest, hard-working rancher. He had a quick temper, a fast gun and his own code of justice that he dispensed swiftly,” Morse explained.

“The ladies loved to have Clay at parties because, coming from Tennessee as he did, he was a fine dancer. But the men had a good deal of respect for him because they knew what his six-shooters could do. His brag was, ‘I never killed a man who didn’t need killing.’ ”

Clay Allison was as colorful as any cowboy along the Santa Fe Trail, but nobody’s known to have done a book or film about him. Not so “The Kid.” At least 50 movies and who knows how many books have told the story of charismatic Billy, fast man with a gun, a card deck and a woman. He died at 21, shot down by his old pal, Pat Garrett, who tracked him to the bedroom of a lady love.

Most historians say Billy died July 14, 1881, but there are others who believe he got away. Indeed, a few claimed they were Billy--but the most convincing candidate also claimed he was Jesse James.

THE OTHER LAS VEGAS

“The Kid” was always where the action was, so he headed for Las Vegas, N.M. A major stop on the Santa Fe Trail from Old Franklin, Mo., to Santa Fe (1822-1879), then an important train station for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, Las Vegas was the biggest city in the state at the turn of the century. The collapse of agriculture in the area in 1924 dealt a blow that still has the pretty little town reeling.

Billy ended up in the Las Vegas jail twice, but it is unlikely he stayed at the town’s finest hotel, The Plaza, built in 1881, the year most historians say he died. Pity he didn’t--it’s a Victorian delight, one of several historical landmark properties surrounding the tranquil town plaza. (Las Vegas boasts nine historic districts and an amazing 870 homes and buildings on the National Register of Historic Places.)

Billy wasn’t the only fast gun in Las Vegas by a long shot. Doc Holliday ran a drugstore--unfortunately not the one that overlooks the town plaza. But go into Murphey’s anyway, if only to admire the authentic ice cream fountain and stools, the curlicue furniture, ornate tin ceiling and hardwood floors.

For a look at contemporary cowboy lifestyle, head down Bridge Street to the Popular Dry Goods Co. where you’ll see cowboy hats, shirts, buckles and boots about a third the price you’d pay in Santa Fe. Two excellent bookstores--Los Artesanos on the plaza and the Bridge Street Books Ltd.--stock hard-to-find volumes on Southwestern lore, everything from Kit Carson biographies to bilingual nursery rhymes, guides to mountain towns of New Mexico to herbal medicine guides.

LINCOLN

The Billy legend is the basis of the economy in Lincoln, where two museums are open year-round, two more museums in summer, and property is historically zoned for 10 miles on either side of the town. (Population: about 100 when the tourists go home.)

Every resident has a Billy story; almost every house is adorned with Billy’s carved initials. The story is that the jailer took pity on The Kid while he was waiting to be hanged (jail was a hole in the ground with a lid on top) and let him stay at the home of Juan Patron (now the Casa de Patron B&B;), where the villagers serenaded him most of the night.

Kay Tracey, guide and historical interpreter at the Lincoln County Heritage Trust Museum, says: “The biggest fallacy people have about the Old West is that it was all gunfights and Indian wars. Everyone had guns and carried them out of necessity because they were a long way from law enforcement. But a lot of people went through their whole lives without shooting anyone.

“That was a time when livestock was more valuable than people,” she said. “You could get hanged or shot for stealing a horse, while if you shot a man the crowd thought disagreeable, they’d let you go your way.”

She says people still take sides on the Lincoln County War, fought in 1878. The war started when a young Englishman, John Tunstall, moved to town and opened a mercantile store that would compete with the G. Murphy establishment for government contracts for the nearby Apache Indian agency and the military post of Ft. Stanton.

Murphy and his sidekick, James Dolan, would have none of it and called in a sheriff’s posse. Tunstall organized his own gunmen, the Regulators, of which charmin’ Billy was the best shot.

When Tunstall was murdered by Murphy’s men on Feb. 18, 1878, the shooting started and continued for five months. It ended with the Five Day Battle, when the sheriff’s posse sieged the McSween house where the Regulators were holed up and set it on fire. It took all day for the house to burn, with Billy and company and the McSweens moving from room to room, ahead of the flames. When the fire, and the occupants, reached the kitchen, Billy and three of his pals made a dash for the nearby Rio Bonito River while Mrs. McSween went out to surrender.

“You didn’t shoot ladies then; it didn’t go over real well,” Tracey pointed out. Unfortunately, that didn’t hold for their husbands. McSween was gunned down as his wife watched. Susan McSween went on to become the Cattle Queen of New Mexico.

Next thing Billy did was ride off to Fort Sumner, 100 miles to the northeast, to rustle cattle, gamble at Beaver Smith’s Saloon and love up the dance hall girls. That’s where Sheriff Garrett caught up with him.

Billy rides again during the annual Old Lincoln Days and the Lincoln Folk Pageant, Aug. 2-4. But real Billymania will take over Sept. 11-14, when the Lincoln County Heritage Trust brings 20 authors and historians to nearby Riudoso’s Swiss Chalet for a symposium, “The Days of Billy the Kid: Violence & the Western Frontier.”

For more information about the symposium, call the Riudoso Chamber of Commerce at (800) 253-2255.

GUIDEBOOK

New Mexico’s Cowboy Trail

Getting there: Albuquerque Airport is the most convenient starting point for those flying into New Mexico. Cimarron and Lincoln are each about four hours by rental car, which are readily available.

Warning: New Mexico maps, even those provided by the Land of Enchantment Tourism office, can be misleading. Some roads indicated on the map do not exist. Some route signs point in contradictory directions. When in doubt, look for the green road signs that carry the name of the town.

Where to stay: In Cimarron, the St. James Hotel, a national landmark built in 1880 and restored in 1985; rates, $45-$85; excellent dining room, open 5 p.m. to closing. Dinner for two with wine, tip and tax: about $40. Coffee shop with home-baked pies. Route 1, Box 2, Cimarron, N.M. 87714, telephone (505) 376-2664.

For other accommodations, contact the Cimarron Chamber of Commerce, P.O. Box 604, Cimarron, N.M. 87114, (505) 376-2614.

In Las Vegas, the Plaza Hotel, a historic landmark with antique furniture; excellent dining room with Sunday brunch; rates, $50 single to $70 and up for suite, not including tax. Address: 230 on the Old Town Plaza, Las Vegas, N.M. 87701, (505) 425-3591.

For information on other accommodations, contact the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, P.O. Box 148, Las Vegas, N.M. 87701, (505) 425-8631.

In Lincoln, the Casa du Patron Bed & Breakfast; open year-round; double room and breakfast: $65. P.O. Box 27, Lincoln, N.M. 88338, (505) 653-4676.

The Wortley Hotel, another historic property, serves breakfast and lunch daily, dinner Thursday through Saturday nights. No liquor. Under $25 for two. Double rooms, $50-$70. Box 96, Lincoln, N.M. 88338, (505) 653-4500.

Best place to dine is 12 miles east of Lincoln, at Chango’s in Capitan. Try anything with pinon or poblano chile sauce. No liquor. Open Wednesday through Sunday, 5 p.m. to closing. Closed Sept. 5 to Oct. 5. Under $25 for two. Reservations encouraged. First and Lincoln streets, Box 639, Capitan, N.M. 88316.

Tour tickets for the Lincoln County Heritage Trust Visitors Center and four museums, $4.50; free to children 15 years and under.

Contact the Lincoln County Heritage Trust Center, P.O. Box 98, Lincoln, N.M. 88338, (505) 653-4025.

For more information: Contact the New Mexico Department of Tourism, Room 751, Joseph M. Montoya Building, 1100 St. Francis Drive, Santa Fe, N.M. 87503, (800) 545-2040.