Out in a blaze, but not so much with glory.

When looking through Google Earth before the trip, I noticed a placemark in the town of Las Cruces that pointed out the burial site for Pat Garrett, the sheriff who reportedly shot Billy the Kid. Since it wasn't too far off my way, I decided to make a quick stop and take a few pictures. In doing a little research, I found out that Pat Garrett was killed outside of Las Cruces and that the site of his death was a secret in order to protect the monument left by family members. Apparently the area is now being turned into a housing development and some historians wanted to have the site protected, so the organization of Friends of Pat Garrett was formed. Not too far from the burial site was the Dona Ana County Historical Society and local small museum, so I stopped in to learn a bit more. Often people will go to large museums but skip the small local places that little towns or counties set up, however the traveler may be missing a lot by skipping these sites. There can be so much more history than one would realize; not just local history but also artifacts from all over the world that may have been brought back by local citizens.

The lady behind the desk wasn't familiar with the Pat Garrett site other than the family burial plot. There was an old gentlemen (probably in his 80s) just walking around the museum area that overheard the conversation and came over. He indicated that he had been out there once before, probably decades ago, and started talking about some of the area history. though it had been a long time since he visited the site, but I knew I was onto something. I grabbed my laptop from the truck and found a nearby wireless signal where I could preload the Garrett Memorial Marker website and Google Earth with the surrounding area before running back inside. Using the pictures from the site that showed the mountains, power lines, and old roads with the google Earth maps, he was able to narrow down the area. The clerk even called someone she knew and this guy happened to be a founder of the movement to protect the site. He didn't have GPS numbers, but he was able to give some great landmarks (such as parking near a high school) so that I could get started. It is exactly this kind of experience than enamors me to traveling; meeting the random kind stranger and sharing something. This was a guy that other than when serving his country in WWII had lived in this area all his life and seemed to be as excited sharing a portion of his world and his knowledge as I was in experiencing it and listening.

After finally finding the high school, I parked on a public read in a nearby subdivision and headed out. After about a mile of walking and triangulating, I was able to find the marker. There probably hasn't been more than a couple of dozen people that have been to this spot in the past few decades, so it was a neat and somewhat unique experience. The nearby highway has a marker that commemorates the general area where he was killed, but it is nowhere near the actual site. Yes, it was a lot of effort and hiking just to visit a site made of nothing more than some angle iron in a pile concrete, but I think it was well worth it since that kind of stuff interests me. I'm not going to post the GPS coordinates since I doubt many people would need them anyway but may share them if asked. It was a great side trip along my path of travel anyway. I had planned to go to the VLA (Very Large Array), but that would have involved a heck of a lot more driving and would have me arrive during the failing light so I wouldn't get much in the way of photographs, so I headed of into the sunset towards the Gila Cliff dwellings.