Taste of the West

Billy the Kid's grave marker in Fort Sumner, New Mexico

On a warm April day in New Mexico, I was riding with new friends through wide-open plains that are so vast, they seem untouched by man. Suddenly, out of the cloudless blue sky, I was hit by a roaring blast of wind that clocked at least 60 miles an hour. It picked up my horse and me and turned us 90 degrees.

We'd been hit by a dust devil. The spinning mass of airborne dirt, like a small tornado, stunned us. It tore the bridle off another horse, and sent a rider's new Stetson sailing over the prairie. Time and again during our week-long adventure officially known as The Trail of Billy's Last Ride, we were reminded that the West is still wild, even 100 years after its infamous gunslingers and outlaws are long gone.

Famous Outlaw
Each spring, Lincoln County businessmen Tim Haggeman and Rex Buchman hold the ride that commemorates the famous outlaw's escape from a jail in Lincoln, New Mexico.

Billy the Kid broke out of the Lincoln County Courthouse on April 28, 1881, gunning down two lawmen as he made his desperate escape. Less than three months later, he was shot dead by Sheriff Pat Garrett in Fort Sumner, now the site of the Kid's grave. The ride takes seven days to travel the 125 miles between Lincoln and Fort Sumner. This year, we rode the trail in reverse, from Fort Sumner to Lincoln.

William H. Bonney (alias Billy the Kid), and the turbulent times he lived in, fascinates those of us passionate about Western history. Riding where Bonney and his gang once did is an adventure that this history buff couldn't pass up.

It's a rare opportunity, because most of the ride crosses private ranch land that's normally closed to the public. Thanks to the generosity of 19 landowners, plus the Bureau of Land Management, United States Forest Service, and other agencies, the trail riders go where few people ever do.

A Ride is Born
Seven years ago, Rex Buchman was working as a New Mexico county extension agent in Fort Sumner, looking for a way to bring more tourism to the area. Local Billy-the-Kid buff and hotel owner Tim Haggeman wanted to stage a ride from the jailhouse to the town where he met his fate.

Even though Haggeman wasn't much of a rider, he and Buchman set off from Lincoln in April 2001, on the anniversary of the Kid's escape. "We got lost and we got thirsty and we got tired and we had to be rescued," recalls Buchman with a laugh. "It was really a great adventure!" So was born the Billy the Kid Trail Ride.

Today, the ride attracts people from all over the country, as well as Canada and Europe. The gigantic ranches supply guides so no one gets lost on the vast properties.

Expert camp cook Wally Roberts provides excellent fare throughout the journey - and a mobile shower truck, which is a welcome sight at the end of a long day on the dusty trail!

Because many of the participants live too far away to bring their own horses, Buchman partners with Burnt Well Guest Ranch owner Kim Chesser, who supplies excellent stock.