10 seconds ago 2009-12-06T07:00:03-08:00
LINCOLN, N.M. – The New Mexico Tourism Department has launched a Web site dedicated to Billy the Kid.
The site has links to maps and tours in Billy the Kid territory, including a complete six-day itinerary, at http://www.newmexico.org/billythekid/.
State Tourism Secretary Michael Cerletti says the site is "a travel experience unlike any other in New Mexico," where visitors can retrace the steps of the famous young outlaw and the sheriff credited with shooting him.
A Billy the Kid Pageant is scheduled to take place during the annual Old Lincoln Days, Aug. 7-9, in the southern New Mexico community of Lincoln, with performances of "The Last Escape of Billy the Kid."
Places featured on the travel Web site include Silver City, where you'll find markers noting the sites of Billy the Kid's boyhood home, one of the foster homes he lived in, and the city jail, which he escaped by shimmying up the chimney. His mother is buried nearby in Memory Lane Cemetery.
The outlaw was tried of murder in a courtroom that today is an art gallery and souvenir shop in La Mesilla, and the town's Gadsden Museum has his jail cell on display. In Lincoln, a circular stone tower still stands where Billy and others ambushed and killed the county sheriff and his deputy. His rifle, chaps and spurs are on display at the Billy the Kid Museum in Fort Sumner. He is buried in the Fort Sumner Military Cemetery.
