Associated Press
LINCOLN, N.M. A major preservation project is underway in an area of southern New Mexico that was was once the stomping grounds of Billy the Kid and Sheriff Pat Garrett.
Officials with the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs announced Thursday that the $395,000 project involves the Lincoln Historic Site, which is home to some of the most significant Territorial Period structures in the state. Many of the structures are under the protection of New Mexico Historic Sites.
One of the six buildings included in the project is the Lincoln County Courthouse, best known as the location of Billy the Kid’s final escape in April 1881.
LINCOLN How’d Billy get the gun?
It will be 140 years ago on Wednesday, April 28, that outlaw Billy the Kid shot jail guard J.W. Bell on a staircase in the Lincoln County Courthouse, setting in motion his escape from the gallows, and adding another layer of gloss to his legend.
Billy the Kid escaped from the old Lincoln County Courthouse, pictured here, on April 28, 1881, killing two deputies in the process.(Jim Thompson/Albuquerque Journal)
Bell stumbled down the steps and out the courthouse’s back door before dying. Only moments before, the hapless guard and his prisoner, the Kid, had entered the building through that door after a visit to the outhouse.
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