LINCOLN, NEW MEXICO
Lincoln, New Mexico is a little village of about 60 people today. It is located about an hour west of Roswell up in the mountains. In the 1880's this little village was the site of one of the bloodiest chapters in American history - The Lincoln County War. Now I thought this was just another range war. Boy, was I wrong! It was politics - same then as now. I learned a lot about the war and one of the bit players in it, Billy the Kid, reading Elizabeth Fackler's wonderful book, Billy the Kid - The Legend of El Chivato (See BOOKS page).
Now to some, Billy was a violent juvenile delinquent. (He was just 19 at the time.) But to Elizabeth and other experts, he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. It seems that Billy left home after the death of his mother from consumption. He didn't really get along with his step-father. He wandered about a bit working odd jobs. One such job was as a dishwasher at a restaurant. One day a friend stopped by and asked Billy to hold some clothes for him. Well, the clothes turned out to be stolen and Billy was blamed. That incident started him running. He just seemed to get into trouble after that without really meaning to.
Arriving in Lincoln, Billy got a job as a ranch hand for an English rancher named John Tunstall. Now, John was real kind to Billy. Took a shinin' to him, you might say. Since this was a first for Billy, Tunstall won his absolute loyalty. Who could blame him?
Tunstall not only bought up land but also with his friend the lawyer, "Mac" McSween, opened up a supplies store in Lincoln in direct competition with the store run by the powerful Murphy-Dolan group. This was the beginning of the Lincoln County War. Local and state politicians who were bought and paid for by the Murphy-Dolan group started harassing Tunstall, "Mac" McSween, and his employees. Finally, the Murphy-Dolan gang shot and killed Tunstall in cold blood.
This is a photograph of the Tunstall-McSween Store today.
This is a photograph of the mountains surrounding Lincoln.
