Across The USA by Dodge
Chapter 25
The day after that was my William H Bonney day. I drove to nearby Fort Sumner (via Santa Rosa) which is where Pat Garrett killed Billy the Kid. It's real desolate country with numerous ghost towns such as Taiban which means "stinking water". Fort Sumner would also be dead if not for all the tourists it attracts.
At the actual fort there's a museum which is reasonably good but it seems like it's run by amateurs with handwritten signs above the exhibits. There's a lot of good things in there such as some weapons and many letters written by Billy the Kid. It's a very interesting history and despite seeing quite a few movies on the subject I wasn't aware of a lot of things on display. The museum could be really good if it was spruced up a bit.
The real drawcard at the fort of course is the grave where he's buried alongside his friends Tom O'Folliard and Charlie Bowdre.
The gravestone reads:
The Boy Bandit King
He Died As He Had Lived
21 Men To His Credit
On the top is a triangle with two crossed pistols, the words Truth and History down the sides and across the bottom 21 and Men with 21 notches in between.
It (the gravestone) has an interesting history and was stolen in 1950 and was missing for 26 years before being located. It was stolen again in 1981 but recovered a few days later. Now it's chained down and behind a steel cage so the tourists can't get near it which is a shame.
Back in the town there's another museum run by two little old ladies who must be 80 in the shade. They were real nice though. One lady's name was Lula Sweet. Their museum has quite a number of Billy the Kid artifacts including a replica of the gravestone but I wondered if any were authentic. They also have a Barbie doll collection (?) plus old cars and other bits and pieces.
Next stop was Santa Fe, the end of the trail for the cowboys 100 years ago. It's a remarkable town with every building made from adobe. I went to a couple of museums and wandered around most of the town seeing all the attractions. One thing I remember clearly is lunch. I went to a Mexican place and had a carnita which is mouth-burning tear-inducingly (there I go again, making up words) hot. Basically it's strips of beef in a tortilla smothered in chilies, jalapenos and onions.
I bought a wooden symbol from native indians in Santa Fe which looks like a T. Just what it means exactly I don't know but as soon as I saw it I had to buy it... there was just something that drew me to it. Or possessed me!
Later I found out it's a tau cross, derived from the figure 7 and the Greek letter gamma -- it symbolises life, and of life eternal: of earthly life because gamma is the symbol of earth and of life eternal because the figure 7 is the symbol of life linked with divine life.
Also, it represents the creative ray (human spirit) emerging from the female.
Chapter 26
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