Sunday 11 October 2009

In the footsteps of Billy the KId

MANCHÁN MAGAN sets off on road trip through Arizona and New Mexico

AS I FOLLOWED in the footsteps of Billy the Kid through Arizona and New Mexico recently, for a documentary, I stumbled on an ideal route for a road trip through wonderfully quirky Wild West towns and swathes of beautifully bleached desert.

Billy wouldn’t top my list of interesting historical figures, but I owe him a debt for introducing me to this spectacular region of the southwestern US, along the border with Mexico. My suggestion would be to fly into Albuquerque, New Mexico, and out of Tucson, Arizona (or vice versa), and drive between the two.

The highlight of southern New Mexico is Lincoln, a tiny town between Capitan and Roswell that once was a trading hub and is now virtually a ghost town, with only 70 inhabitants, and a frontier feel has been remarkably well preserved. It is easy to imagine the cattle barons, cowboys, Apaches and Hispanics riding in from the mesquite-covered hills that stretch between the Capitan and Sacramento Mountains. FULL STORY HERE

1 comment:

Laurie Powers said...

This is awesome country. I'm glad Bisbee got some attention - it's usually in the shadow of Tombstone.