We rolled into Lincoln, just down the road from the Smokey Bear Historical Park, not expecting much. We ended up spending the remainder of our day there. Lincoln was famously at the center of the Lincoln County War that took place from 1876-1879. Now, most of the town is frozen in time as the Lincoln Historic Site and may just be the best preserved town in the west.
We started out at the Anderson Freeman Visitor Center and learned all about the history of Lincoln County, from early native Americans through the end of the Lincoln County War. The War began when English born John Tunstall attempted to break the monopoly that James Dolan and Lawrence Murphy had on dry goods and cattle sales in Lincoln County, New Mexico Territory. The two groups used legalized gangs (i.e. law enforcement and the government) as well as more loosely organized gangs to assist them in gaining the upper hand over the other party. It all ended in lots of bloodshed including a five day shootout in Lincoln in July 1878.
We walked the streets and visited a few of the open buildings including the Tunstall Store.
The Torreon, originally built in the 1850’s was restored in the 1930’s
One of the most famous characters of the Lincoln County War was Billy the Kid. Billy survived the big shootout in 1878 but was eventually captured and scheduled to be hanged in 1881. While he waited, he was held in the old Murphy and Co. building that had since been sold to the county, and converted to a courthouse and jail.
The bullet holes are still in the wall of the courthouse where Billy shot deputy J.W. Bell during his escape.
Billy was later killed, at age 22, by Sherriff Pat Garrett in 1881, putting an end to the Lincoln County War.
There is, of course a lot more to the story. Drop by Lincoln some time to learn all about it. If you are in to the old west, plan to spend a good part of a day here.
Postscript – Tombstone:
We did also visit Tombstone, Arizona much later in the trip. While the history of Lincoln and Tombstone have similarities, the two routes the towns have taken to portray their histories are vastly different.
While Lincoln is like visiting a well curated museum full of preserved historical artifacts, Tombstone felt more like Disneyland. There isn’t anything inherently wrong with either, but we’d much rather go to the museum, and leave Tombstone (and Disneyland) to the hoards of people looking to buy a t-shirt and some fudge. We didn’t stay in Tombstone long, as we weren’t looking to buy anything, and that is basically what there is to do there.
