Lincoln

County: Lincoln

Year Established: January 1869

Year Abandoned: Semi Ghost town

Population:

Location: 57 miles west of Roswell and just south of the Lincoln National Forest. From Ruidoso, take Hwy 48 North for 18 miles. At Capitan, turn right on Hwy 380 East for 12 miles

About: When Spanish-speaking, Native New Mexican settlers from the upper Rio Grande began arriving in the 1850s, the named their new home La Placita del Rio Bonito (the place by the pretty river). In 1869, just four years after the end of the Civil War, the county and town were renamed for the late President, Abraham Lincoln.

The town of Lincoln was at the center of the Lincoln County War, 1876-1879, and is primarily known today for its historical ties to Billy the Kid. The village holds an annual festival called Old Lincoln Days in August featuring an open-air enactment of The Last Escape of Billy the Kid.

Lincoln has been Federally designated as the Lincoln Historic District, and also as a New Mexico State Monument called the Lincoln Historic Site. These designations, along with the efforts of generations of local residents, have made Lincoln one of the best preserved old west towns left in existence and the most visited monument in the State of New Mexico.

For about a year during World War II, the Old Raton Ranch, an abandoned Civilian Conservation Corps camp on the outskirts of Lincoln, was used to confine Japanese American railroad workers and their families. All 32 internees came from Clovis, New Mexico; the town's entire Japanese American population was placed under house arrest shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor brought the U.S. into the war, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service "evacuated" them to Lincoln on January 23, 1942.

Unlike the "assembly centers" where most Japanese Americans spent the first months of their wartime incarceration, access to school, employment and recreational activities was not permitted in Lincoln. On December 18, 1942, the internees were transferred to several of the more public concentration camps run by the War Relocation Authority.

Remains: Lots to see and tons of history! WORTH THE TRIP!

Lincoln County Court House

This historic two-story stuccoed adobe structure was built in 1873 – 1874 by L. G. Murphy & Company. Known as the “Big House/Store” for 6 years, it was destined to become the center of both political and business affairs in Lincoln County.

Over its’ long history, it has contained a general store, Masonic meeting room, bar, billiard room, sheriff’s office, jail, living quarters, courthouse, city and county offices, school, and was the scene of Billy the Kid’s daring escape when deputies Olinger and Bell died at his hands.

During the 1940s the Courthouse was maintained by the Museum of New Mexico and the Lincoln County Historical Society.

It is now the primary museum of the New Mexico Historic Site Complex in Lincoln.This building is listed both on the National Historic Register and the New Mexico Register of Cultural Properties.

La Iglesia De San Juan Bautista Mission

When church services, weddings, funerals, and other regularly scheduled functions are not taking place here, Lincoln's historic Iglesia de San Juan Bautista, originally built in 1887, can be viewed free. The tiny church was built and restored entirely from local materials. Roof beams and other wood elements including latillas (small branches laid on top of larger, rounded wood beams known as vigas) were dragged by oxcart from the nearby Capitan Mountains.

Torreon

One of Lincolns earliest structures. Built in the 1850's, its thick walls protected Spanish-Americans against the Apaches. In Lincoln County War Murphy's sharpshooters were here stationed. In 1937 Chavez County Historical Society undertook the restoration of the tower.