Back to original page Printer Friendly Version of REDTT's:  Gunfighters, Outlaws and Cowboys Gunfighters, outlaws, cowboys and their horses!! New Mexico boasts of some of the most famous of each!!   Billy the Kid Educational Web sites - Billy the Kid Outlaw Gang - preserving, promoting, and protecting the Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett history in New Mexico. A Web site out of Capitan, NM Learn more about Billy the Kid visit the "About Billy the Kid site. Not a tourism site, but lots of fun facts. Great Billy the Kid Links on this site: OutlawScribe.Com Billy the Kid Museum - The best privately owned museum in the Southwest! You've heard the legends, now learn the truth behind Billy the Kid. 1601 E. Sumner Ave. in Fort Sumner, NM (505) 355-2380 Billy the Kid Scenic Byway - Follow the route of Billy the Kids crime spree throughout New Mexico! A National Scenic Byway designation from the Federal Highway Commission since June of 1998. Lincoln County is rich in history; Billy the Kid, the Lincoln County War, the Mescalero Apache tribe, Kit Carson, "Black Jack" Pershing, the Buffalo Soldiers, the world's richest Quarter Horse race and Smokey Bear. Start at the interpretive center in Ruidoso Downs, NM Caprock Creek Ranch Adventures, Inc. The Caprock Creek families invite you to join them for a look at cowboy life on a working ranch. Breathtaking scenery and wildlife native to the area. Chuck wagon meals, "tall tales," horseshoes and good ole country music. Try your hand at "ropin, hikin or cowchip throwin." Also guided walks and leather tooling demonstrations. Special events available are Easter Sunrise Service or plan business retreats, family reunions, school field trips and even weddings. Join us for a great Western adventure. Adventures are by reservation only. San Jon is 3 hours east of Albuquerque, NM or 1 1/2 hours west of Amarillo, TX. Caprock Creek is located at 1710 A Quay Road 50, San Jon, NM. Call us at 1-888-GIDDY-UP Columbus Historical Museum - Learn the history of Columbus and Pancho Villa's raid. See the American and Mexican Indian collection, military and weapons collection, and even a railroad room. On the corner of NM 9 and NM 11, Columbus, NM (505) 531-2620 Corralitos Ranch - See the West from the back of a horse. Horseback trail rides throughout historic Corralitos Ranch, Doña Ana County and southwest New Mexico! Even into Mexico. Indian and cowboy ranching history, moonlight rides in the summer, old Western town for rent and more. Located just west Las Cruces, NM (505) 640-8184 or 527-4242 Fort Sumner Museum - The museum is adjacent to the grave site of Billy the Kid and has Billy the Kid memorabilia along with other historical items from 1865. Located 7 miles southeast of Fort Sumner via U.S. 60 and Billy the Kid Road, off U.S. 60/84. Fort Sumner, NM (505) 355-2942 Historic Log Cabin Replica - Silver City is the home of an historic replica of a cabin from the 1850s which was used in the film, The Missing. It replicates the cabin that Billy the Kid lived in with his mother, Catherine McCarty, who died in 1874, and is buried in Silver City's Memory Lane Cemetery. See it at 201 North Hudson, at the Chamber of Commerce, in downtown Silver City, NM (800) 548-9378 or www.silvercity.org Hubbard Museum of the American West - Features "Free Spirits at Noisy Water" - one of the world's largest equine monuments, realistic art, horse related artifacts, videos, live demonstrations, wagons, saddles, special exhibits, and the Ruidoso Downs Race Horse Hall of Fame. Highway 70 West, Ruidoso Downs, NM (505) 378-4142 or 800-263-5929 Kit Carson Home and Museum - Christopher "Kit" Carson ran away from Missouri to end up in Taos and become one of the great frontiersman of our time. He was a translator for a wagon train to Chihuahua, a trapper and mountain man, traveling extensively throughout the West. His real fame grew through serving as scout for the scientific and mapping expeditions of John C. Fremont. From 1854 until 1861, Carson served as an Indian Agent. In 1861, Carson began the final stage of his career as a military officer, first in the Civil War and later in the army campaigns of the Indian Wars. The Kit Carson Home and Museum contains a portion of Carson's original home. Artifacts and exhibits illustrate the life story of Carson, his family and the character of frontier life in Taos. Other exhibits depict the importance of the Native American and Hispanic cultures in the history of northern New Mexico. Taos, NM. Information (505) 758-0505 Lea County Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Museum - Lea County has produced more rodeo champs than any other county in the U.S.! Visit this wonderful museum and discover rodeo stars, such as Roy Cooper, who got his start in New Mexico! Learn the history of Lea County as seen from the perspective of Indians, buffalo hunters, soldiers, open-range homesteaders, and settlers. Exhibits spotlight outstanding county ranchers and rodeo performers. 5317 Lovington Highway, Hobbs, NM (505) 392-1275 or 5518 Lincoln County Cowboy Symposium - Held every October in Ruidoso Downs, NM. Named the #1 "cowboy gathering" in the nation, this symposium features authentic chuck wagon cooking, cowboy poets, singers, songwriters, western lifestyle demonstrations and western craftsmen. Bring the family and wear your boots to top off the fun with toe-tappin' western swing music. Click above for more information or call (800) 263-5929 Lincoln County Heritage Trust Historical Museum - Exhibits include: Billy the Kid, the Lincoln County War, cowboys, Apaches, and Buffalo soldiers. Located in Lincoln, 32 miles northeast of Ruidoso on U.S. 380. Lincoln, NM (505) 653-4025 Lincoln State Monument and National Landmark - a restored frontier town and site of Billy the Kid's last escape. 32 miles northeast of Ruidoso on U.S. 380. Lincoln, NM (505) 653-4372 Old Lincoln Days - An annual event held in August, Billy the Kid rides again - and escapes (again!) from the courthouse as the citizens of Lincoln reenact this historical event. Great western adventure. For more information call (505) 653-4025 Pancho Villa State Park - On March 9, 1916, the soldiers of General Francisco "Pancho" Villa attacked the small border town of Columbus and Camp Furlong. Pancho Villa State Park contains extensive historical exhibits which depict this raid, the first armed invasion of the continental United States since the War of 1812. Desert gardens, visitor center, campsites and near the Columbus Historical Museum, (505) 531-2620, in the old railroad depot! Columbus, NM (505) 531-2711 Rough Riders Museum Collection - The City of Las Vegas Museum and Rough Rider Memorial Collection illustrates the history of Las Vegas, its connection to the Rough Riders, the Santa Fé Trail and the development of New Mexico. The museum is housed in a 1940 Works Progress Administration funded building. Originally constructed as a municipal building, the structure is a venerable stone building with Pueblo Revival elements. The museum houses a significant collection of artifacts, archives and photographs from the Rough Riders, or the 1st Volunteer Cavalry Regiment of the Spanish-American War. The Rough Rider Memorial Collection contains items relating to the 1898 Cuban Campaign of the Spanish-American War, Theodore Roosevelt and Roosevelt’s Rough Rider Association reunions. Also included are collections of local Native American pottery, household items, costumes, ranching and farming equipment. Contact museum before taking the trip: museum@desertgate.com, 727 Grand Ave., Las Vegas, NM (505) 454-1401, Ext. 283 Thomas E. "Black Jack" Ketchum - From up near Folsom, at the northeast corner of New Mexico, "Black Jack" Ketchum is noted as the only outlaw in American history ever hanged for train robbery in 1901. See his grave at the Clayton Cemetery on Princeton Ave., Clayton, NM Wyatt Earp - Learn about the life of the legendary Wyatt Earp! Tour the OK Corral. Site of Wyatt Earps famous gunfight! Not in New Mexico, but worth the trip! Back to original page .