Thoughts

About writing a History of Lincoln County

For years I’ve thought about writing a history of LC that wasn’t a Billy the Kid commercial. I’ve read a lot of the books out there and really hadn’t found one that told the story. My proposed book title was: The Not So Famous or Infamous People of LC.

However that has all changed, when I finished reading “Merchants, Guns and Money, the History of Lincoln County and It’s Wars” by John P. Wilson. This book gives an accurate and more or less complete history based on great research and the facts. It covers the time period from the early 1850s to 1913 when the County Seat was voted to be moved to Carrizozo.

Since I’m not a fan of Billy the Kid mania the title was a little sensational for me. My other observation is that it didn’t cover much of the Hispano story; that of course is my continual gripe. It seems that most documents and the early newspapers were generated by Anglos and gave things from their perspective. Most of the early towns or villages were founded by Hispanos and they constituted the majority of the folks. So what was their thinking?

An example of this bias is the notion put forth in the Press and other places during the Lincoln County War, that there was a great flight of families from Lincoln Co. My research leads me to believe that is a bunch of crap. My great-grandparents who were Anglo and Hispano lived in Missouri Plaza in 1870 and were ranching in the other side of the county on Magado Creek in 1880. They moved because Missouri Plaza collapsed not because of conflict. Very few (hardly any) of the families that I’ve tracked left LC during those years, it seems to me that nothing has changed. Today the press (media) and to some extent the government, sensationalize a thing to suit their ends (sell more/politicize more).

I DON’T WANT THIS to become a political forum, this was just an observation.