Billy the Kid's journeys may have taken him near Portales
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Jul. 8—This Friday will mark 142 years since the death of Henry McCarty, a.k.a. Billy the Kid, a.k.a. William or Billy Bonney.
On July 14, 1881, most historians believe Billy the Kid died around midnight in Pete Maxwell's bedroom in Fort Sumner. That fact has been challenged and debated for years concerning just who did Lincoln County Sheriff Pat Garrett gun down in the dark from Maxwell's bedside.
Some believed it wasn't Billy and that he lived for decades in Hico, Texas. Former Gov. Bill Richardson famously took up the debate to keep Billy in his Fort Sumner grave as Texans sought to have Brushy Bill Roberts identified as actually being the Kid, who lived out his life in Hico.
Richardson was even the second New Mexico governor to consider a pardon for Billy. The first was Lew Wallace who, according to Billy, promised him a pardon in exchange for testimony in the affairs of the bloody Lincoln County War. Neither governor ever followed through with a pardon.
New Mexico towns of Lincoln and Fort Sumner have cashed in on Billy's name, the former for being the place where he twice escaped the law and the latter where he recreated and died.
Not much is known about where he was during that approximately 2 1/2 months between the time he killed his guards J.W. Bell and Robert Ollinger at the Lincoln courthouse and his hankering for a steak on Pete Maxwell's hacienda porch in Fort Sumner.
At least one early day Roosevelt County historian believes Billy hid out where he often hid out when chased — at Portales Springs. The caliche overhangs provided some bit of shelter and the small lake fed by the spring provided water for him and his horse and likely attracted game on which he could have subsisted.
Garrett likely assumed The Kid was nearly in Mexico by the time he returned from White Oaks. It likely came as a surprise to learn he was still in the region.
Billy and his affiliates were thought to leave messages for each other on the walls at Portales Springs so if he were around for more than two months, chances are he at least stopped by.
In the book "A Man Was a Man in Them Days" authors Ruth White Burns and Rose Powers White relate a story told by local historian and cowboy Col. Jack Potter: That story claimed Billy had been looking for a message at Portales Springs when he saddled up early on July 14 and headed down the road known as the Portales Road to Fort Sumner.
Did Billy really begin his last ride just east of Portales? Could he have even traveled that far in one day?
Just like a lot of other details about his life, that last ride is shrouded in mystery. I like to think it's true.
Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:
