|
 
|
Village of Fort Sumner Incorporated: 1911
|
|
510 Avenue C, Fort
Sumner, NM 88119
Hours of Service:
Monday – Friday 8 am – 5 pm
Closed in observance of all National
holidays.
|
Come visit our
friendly village!
Fort Sumner has a lot
to offer in its history and surrounding recreational areas.
In this friendly
western village you can take a pleasant stroll along the historic Pecos
River, enjoy fishing, camping and water sports at Lake Sumner, visit Old Fort
Museum and Billy the Kid’s Gravesite, Bosque Redondo Memorial, or view the
historical WPA murals located in the
De Baca County Courthouse.
Fort Sumner, a military fort, named for Col. Edmond Vose
Sumner.
|
Mayor
Windell Bridges
riverhome@plateautel.net
Celebrate with us annually the return of “Billy the Kid’s
Tombstone”
during
Old Fort Days
2nd weekend in June.
|
|
  
On January 6, 1912, New Mexico became the 47th State
in the U.S. Fort Sumner is one of many New Mexico communities in the state to
take an active role in this Centennial Celebration.
June 6-9, 2012, the second weekend in June, Fort
Sumner will celebrate “Old Fort Days”.
This annual event features “Billy the Kid Tombstone Race”. This race is symbolic of the
numerous times Billy’s headstone has been stolen, and has a purse prize up to
$3,500.00.
Other New Mexico communities will be commemorating
one hundred years of New Mexico statehood: telling stories of the past, while
envisioning the state’s next hundred years.
|
|
Home
of Billy the Kid
November 23, 1859 – July 14,
1881
|
|
|
Legendary outlaw Billy
the Kid was killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett and buried in Fort Sumner.
Billy the Kid, also known as Henry McCarty, Henry Antrim and
William H. Bonney was a 19th century American frontier outlaw and
gunman who participated in the Lincoln County War. According to legend, he
killed 21 men.
McCarty (or Bonney, the name he used at the height of his
notoriety) was 5 ft. 8 in. to 5 ft. 9 in. tall with blue eyes, a smooth
complexion, and prominent front teeth. He was said to be friendly and
personable at times. Relatively unknown during most of his lifetime, Billy
was catapulted into legend a few months before his death by New Mexico’s
governor, Lew Wallace, who placed a price on his head.
Sheriff Pat Garrett shot and killed Billy the Kid July 14, 1881. Billy was
buried the next day in Fort Sumner’s old military cemetery, between his
fallen companions Tom O’Folliard and Charlie Bowdre. A single tombstone was later
erected over the graves with a one word epitaph of “Pals” carved into it.
The tombstone has been stolen and
recovered three times since it was set in place in the 1940s, and the entire
gravesite is now enclosed within a steel cage. Following his execution by Lincoln County sheriff Pat Garrett,
several biographies were written that depicted the Kid as either a vicious
outlaw or a nineteenth-century Robin Hood.
|
|
Get Your . . .Billy the Kid
Playing Cards
|
Call: 575-355-2832
or 575-760-2875
For purchase information
These unique cards feature
Billy the Kid
& DeBaca
County areas of interest.
Proceeds benefit
Friends of FSPL Literacy Projects.
|
|
|
 |
|
Bosque
Redondo Memorial
Fort Sumner was the center of a million-acre
reservation known as the Bosque
Redondo Indian Reservation. The story of how the U.S. Army forcibly moved
the Navajo and Mescalero Apache people from their traditional homelands to
the land surrounding this lonely outpost is pivotal to the history of the
American West.
During this tragic period of U.S. history,
the Navajo and Mescalero Apache Indians were starved into submission and then
forced to march hundreds of miles to the Bosque Redondo Reservation. The
Navajo call this journey the Long Walk. When they arrived, 9,000 Navajo and
Mescalero Apache were spread as far as 20 miles along the banks of the Pecos
River. Nearly one-third of the captives died during incarceration.
Today a unique new museum provides
information about the tragic history of Fort Sumner and Bosque Redondo Indian
Reservation. Plans are underway to construct Phase II of the museum.
Set next to the Pecos River and enhanced by
a shady picnic area at the old fort, this Monument is a beautiful destination
to visit and reflect on the history and "spirit of place".
|
|
|
Downtown Fort Sumner 4th Street
(U.S. Hwy 60/84).
|
Village
Incorporated 1916
De Baca County
Seat Fort Sumner
Total Land
Area 2,325 sq. mi.
Total Water
Area 9 sq. mi.
Elevation 4,032 ft.
Population 1,819 (2009)
Mountain Standard Time Zone
Bosque
Redondo Slough (Real Wind Drive)
|
|
Fort
Sumner has a lot to offer in its history and surrounding recreational areas.
Seven
miles southeast of town you will find Old
Fort Sumner Museum and Cemetery, where you can visit Billy the Kid’s
grave.
Four
miles east on U.S. Hwy 60/84 and south three miles on Billy the Kid Road you
will find Fort Sumner State Monument
which includes the Bosque Redondo Indian
Memorial that memorializes the Navajo’s Long Walk and the story of
the Bosque Redondo Indian Reservation.
|
Fort
Sumner, New Mexico is located on U.S. Hwy 60 halfway between Albuquerque, NM and
Lubbock, TX 160 miles each way.
 In 1916, Fort Sumner was incorporated as a village and
when De Baca County was established in 1917, Fort Sumner was designated as
the county seat, where it remains today.
Fort
Sumner’s chief industries are ranching and farming alfalfa.
|
|
|
|
Village of Fort Sumner
P.O. Box
180 – 173 E. Avenue C, Fort Sumner, NM 88119
575-355-2401
575-355-7941
(fax)
fscityhallrs@plateautel.net
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
