I remember reading about the Lincoln Cattle Wars when I was a young man. I am a fan of western novels, and many dealt with the events happening in Lincoln County during the 1870s and 80s. Billy the Kid, Pat Garret, John Chisum and many more names populated the books and stories. Much of what happened took place in and around Lincoln New Mexico. Today, Lincoln is mostly a historic site where visitors can explore history where it happened. The town itself has not changed much and is given over to period structures and museums. The Lincoln Historic Site is unique in that it manages most of the historical buildings in the community of Lincoln. This most widely visited state monument in New Mexico is part of a community frozen in time—the 1870's and 1880's.
The historic site now includes 17 structures and outbuildings, seven of which are open year-round and two more seasonally as museums. Most of the buildings in the community are representative of the Territorial Style of adobe architecture in the American Southwest. Unlike Fredericksburg, VA or ???, the people of Lincoln do not dress like the folks of 150 years ago, but they are very knowledgeable about the time and living conditions of that age.
Billy the Kid, aka William Bonny, is, by far, the most popular and mythical former resident of the town. There seems to be only one photograph of the young man, and it is pretty bad, but it is all over the town and can be found on tee shirts, coffee mugs, water vessels, and just about anything else.
The Lincoln Monument Visitor’s Center is a museum that covers the history of the area. From the early Apache’s to the events surrounding the death of William Bonny, the museum presents a clear and comprehensive picture of Lincoln County. And the town of Lincoln is where much of the focus lies. It is said that except for the paved road passing through the town, it looks exactly like it did in 1880. Bullet holes left by “The Kid” or monuments where deputy sheriffs fell, or grave sites of famous individual of the stories dot the area. To hear some of the residents talk, it could have been yesterday that Billy rode out of town for the last time.
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