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Published: April 24th 2013
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DAY TWO: APRIL 23, 2013 – AFTERNOON
FORT SUMNER During the War Between the States General Carleton was the smartest man in New Mexico. No doubt about it. He certainly knew what would be best for the Navajo when he ordered Colonel Kit Carson to take some battle hardened New Mexico Militia to pillage the Navajo homeland and take them on a long walk to the Bosque Redondo on the Pecos River where they could either starve to death or die from malaria if their friends the Mescaleros didn’t kill them for other reasons. Carleton was genuinely well-intentioned for their welfare when he came up with that plan. Fort Sumner was built in 1862 to manage the new utopia for the Navajo. By 1868 the plan was in abject failure, the Navajo who survived it went back to their homeland, and the army sold Fort Sumner to Lucien Maxwell. Lucien was a mountain man himself, a close friend of Kit Carson, and he had the good fortune to marry into a family that held a huge Mexican land grant that the federal government found valid. Lucien Maxwell became a land baron
PALS
From Fort Sumner go east on Hwy 60 about three miles, then follow the tourist signs to the cemetery. Plan to spend a little time there looking the museum, and other attractions. in Colfax County and for a while was the wealthiest person in New Mexico. When he bought Fort Sumner he rebuilt a 40 foot by 100 foot officer’s dwelling into a twenty room two story home. By and by Lucien died because the large life he was living did not really suit him. His son Pete became the big dog with the brass collar in those parts but graft and corruption brought violence and lawlessness to Lincoln County. Trouble showed up in Pete’s life as Billy the Kid, that little rat. Pete’s sister, Paulina Maxwell, was very sweet on Billy. He liked to dance with the Mexican girls, and gamble, and carouse in saloons. What he did not like was to work for his livelihood at any form of honest toil. He tried it once for John Tunstall and that did not turn out well for him. By the time he was twenty-one years old Billy was, a thief, a bold killer, and had become the most wanted outlaw in New Mexico. He rode at the head of a group of outlaws that included as members Tom O’Folliard, Charlie Bowdre, and Dirty Dave Rudabaugh. Pursuing them was a bounty hunter
STINKING SPRINGS
A rock line shack once stood somewhere in his photo. Nothing remains of it now, but it is where Charlie Bowdre went down under a hail of lead, and where Pat Garrett was heard to comment on Billy that, "No man who likes chili can be all bad". named Joe Grant who came after Billy in a Fort Sumner saloon in 1880. Billy managed to disable Joe’s gun by taking the bullets out, then provoked a fight and murdered him. Lincoln County Sheriff Pat Garrett was hot on Billy’s trail too and on December 19 Pat got word through Pete Maxwell that Bowdre’s wife had been living in rooms over in what used to be the Indian hospital. Billy’s gang were frequent visitors there. They staked the hospital out and sure enough the outlaws rode into an ambush there. The posse opened fire at the man leading the group and killed him, but it turned out to be Tom O’Folliard who was killed. Billy and the others escaped into the night. Three days later Pat got information that the outlaws were hiding at a line shack at Stinking Springs about 15 miles east of Fort Sumner. The posse rode out and surrounded the shack just before daylight when a man appeared in the doorway wearing Billy’s hat and jacket. It was a cold morning and the man was attempting to lead the horse inside the shack apparently to saddle him. The posse opened fire badly wounding the man
TOM O'FOLLIARD
The Indian hospital near where Tom O'Folliard was killed once stood about where those weeds are now lustily growing. Pete Maxwell's house, where Billy was killed, got washed away by flood waters in the Pecos River. There is a plaque marking the spot where Pete's bedroom is thought to have been. Go find it. and killing the horse. The horse dropped in his tracks blocking the doorway. The wounded man was Charlie Bowdre. Billy knew that Charlie would not last long and persuaded to go out in blazing glory so Charlie charged out the door and was instantly killed. The posse had sent for a chuck wagon and had begun preparing a meal. The aroma of that chili con carne and hot biscuits wafted inside the shack and it was too much for Billy and Dirty Dave. They came out to surrender and have supper. Billy was taken into custody, charged with murder in the death of Sheriff Brady, convicted on that charge down in Mesilla, and sentenced to hang back in Lincoln. He murdered to jailers in Lincoln, broke loose from jail and headed back to Fort Sumner. On July 14, 1881 Pat Garrett killed Billy in Pete Maxwell’s bedroom of all places. Billy, Tom Charlie, Pete, Lucien and Joe are all buried in th post cemetery at Fort Sumner. The whole bloody mess was put into motion by General Carleton, who was the smartest man in New Mexico. Ask anyone.
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