Billy The Kid Museum — Attraction in Fort Sumner

I'm always surprised to discover actual places where the Wild West occurred. Like many people I got most of my historic and geographic information, or misinformation, from films. I don't remember ever hearing the phrase, The Wild West, in school or seeing it on one of those pull down maps teachers were so fond of. Well, it turns out the wild west is more of an idea than a place. A short span of time beginning roughly after the Civil War and ending at fin de siècle, the dawn of the twentieth century. Sure, I know where some of its geography is, Dodge City, Tombstone, The OK Corral; maybe not the OK Corral.

It occurred anywhere west of the original 13 colonies. The James Gang was practically wiped out in the Northfield Minnesota raid and the famous Dodge City is in Kansas. Still I'm surprised when I'm driving and I come across it. I'll see a sign about a scenic route or an off-road attraction. I was driving through New Mexico and guess who I found?

There was something going on in New Mexico in 1880 called the Lincoln County War, a fight between the rich and not so rich, who each hired people to kill the others. One of those hired was a young New Yorker named Henry McCarty. Henry had several aliases, Henry Antrim, William Harrison Bonney, but the one he's most known by is Billy the Kid. That's who and what I found driving from Alamogordo to Ruidoso. A road called Billy the Kid Scenic Byway (the billybyway in computer speak) and the site of the Lincoln County War.

Many people were killed including several of the principal players. It was a losing deal all around. The law was under pressure to bring the guilty to justice. The Lincoln County sheriff resigned. In his place a former saloon owner and gunman, Pat Garrett was appointed to find the guilty parties. In December 1880 Pat killed Tom O'Folliard, a member of Billy's gang, on December 23rd his posse killed another member, Charlie Bowdre, and took Billy prisoner. Billy was the only one ever tried for events of the Lincoln County War. He was sentenced to be hanged. He wrote several letters to the governor, Lew Wallace (author of Ben Hur), but clemency was denied. Billy escaped from the Lincoln County jail, killing his guards, Bell and Olinger, in the process.

The world must have seemed like a small place to Billy. He escaped in April 1881 but in July of that year he was still no more than twenty miles from the jail he had fled, hiding in the home of friend in Fort Sumner. Garrett was questioning the Fort Sumner man, Lucien Maxwell, when Billy entered the room and Garrett shot him dead. Garrett claimed Billy had a gun but no gun was found on the body.

The Wild West is more than a place and more than an idea, it was an era, one that attempted to bring an injured nation out of its lethargy and...

Welcome to the Billy The Kid Museum! What a great stop off through NM. If you are an Old west history buff or just want to see something interesting “ Then Partner mosey on down to this museum! “ Looks small on the outside but you will be pleasantly surprised how much they have on display in side. There is a very nice small display of genuine Billy the Kid artifacts on display in the Billy the Kid room…the curtain and door with bullet holes was eerie ! Lots of great information to read about. So much newspaper articles and pictures to get you interested in find out about this period in the old west. Not just great display of Billy the Kid items but you got to see Pancho Villa and other western characters that shaped that period in time. Lots of personal artifacts to look at and so many other hidden gems, you stumble upon while you walk around. They have a reconstruction of the gravesite of Billy the Kid what was cool ( we had just seen the original up in Fort Summers visitors center for free) and it was great to be able to read it better on the reconstruction. They have so much to look at , you will need plenty of time to walk around and see everything on display. We were there for a few hours and still didn’t get to really study and read about everything, definitely will have to come back again. They have a huge gift shop and something for everyone. Pretty reasonably priced for some of the gifts. Very clean restrooms and decent amount of parking. We were there on a weekday and it was crowded. Staff were very nice and thanked us for coming. I would definitely recommend this museum it’s worth the price of admission and they have a lot to catch your interest and not just Billy...

This felt like a collection of very random antiques but few were directly related to Billy the Kid as the name implies. He didn't drive the Chevrolet there, he drive the scooter, and he didn't use the typewriter.

The prize here is the 1873 Winchester that was actually his. The grave is a recreation while the real one is two miles away and charging people to see a fake grave just felt wrong to me.

The rest of the collection is really difficult to describe. There's firearms that are period-correct, artifacts related to Fort Sumner, and a lot of things that just don't make sense.

Fort Sumner overall appears to be a struggling town so I understand why every sign mentions Billy the Kid, but the name is mostly all that's left save for his grave and his rifle, poorly painted plaster statues, and a town trying to capitalize on it all; the same town that saw him shot just over a...