Billy the Kid

After all these canyons, I guess we went the opposite direction. Lake Sumner  in New Mexico is basically a plain. Here’s the view from the campground.

Here’s the dam that was completed in 1937.

We’ve been seeing prickly pear cactus and now the cholla cactus has shown up. I watched a herd of 7 mule deer eating this cactus.

We spent Thanksgiving here. We were also able to get a couple of shipments at the local post office. Buying gifts on the internet is much more difficult when you are moving around all the time!

Fort Sumner is known as the place that Billy the Kid was killed back in 1881. Sheriff Pat Garrett found him here after he escaped from prison. Billy (or William H. Bonney) was only 21 years old but had already killed eight men. His grave is outside the town where he was buried with 2 friends who died a few months earlier. The interesting part here is that the smaller gravestone was made in 1940, stolen in 1950, recovered in 1976, stolen again and recovered in 1981. Now it is in two cages to keep it here.

In town is the Billy the Kid Museum. This museum is amazing! It is only $5 per person but has room after room of items (an estimated 60,000). The museum is one family’s work with lots of donations and opened in 1953. The stuff is amazing. There are several pieces that are directly related to Billy the Kid like his spurs and his rifle.

There is stuff that is sort of related like a picture of two guys whose grandfathers were pallbearers at Billy’s funeral or pots that cooked food that Billy ate.

There are also rooms of stuff like fossils and arrowheads and from the 1800’s to roughly the 1950’s. I liked this funeral carriage and this jail cell.