Historic Value of State Parks of New Mexico by Phil Cooke; First meeting of the '68 season of Albuquerque's Historical Society. After New Mexico became apart of the United States union, 1846,. 1890s George Musgrave cowboy came out of Roswell, led by George Parker. Parker informed the wrestling gang that he and Musgrave were apart of. Bill Christian met up w Musgrave and Christian became known as Blackjack Christian. These two and three others formed a gang called the High Fives- SW section of New Mexico in 1895. Cole Estes, Loomis (marshal) killed Estes on train that they were robbing. Musgrave showed up on a ranch in Roswell where Parker was living after informing on his old gang, where Musgrave murdered Parker. 1897 Christian died in Clifton, Arizona during a raid. Newspapers took the name of Blackjack and gave it to another outlaw Thomas E. Ketchum who in 1901 in Clayton was hanged. After Christian died, the High Fives up to Grants Siding (just Grants now), and held up a train by unhitching engine and baggage car two miles up the track. Looted over 6 figures work of loot. Firemen tried to bring up the carts back up to rest of train but overshot, crashed it, and started a fire in Grants Siding station. 1897 Thanksgiving time, they took over Frontierist, Mexico- Mexican authorities caught them and put them in jail. Only 9000 dollars on them, so rest of the loot is somewhere on the trail from Grants to where they were caught in Mexico, and then disappeared. Musgrave went by Jesse Williams and/or Jeff Davis was able to disappear 1910 Musgrave was arrested and tried for the murder of parker, but was acquitted and Musgrave disappeared again. He went to South America- Argentina, and all over South America. He robbed trains, gambled, etc. and eventually married and settled down. 1947 died in Argentina a respected citizen. Roswell has Bottomless Lakes State Park- 5-6 lakes; one of these lakes was named after Jay C. Lee father of present city of Roswell. Ashton Upson first postmaster. Lee became established rancher in New Mexico- was aquantentces with Billy the Kid. Bottomless Lake was called because cowboys were curious- "how deep are these lakes?". Let rocks down with rope and couldn't find the bottom because of caves, caverns, etc. 190tf deep, now used to train scuba divers. Kit Carson Memorial State Park in Taos- encompass where he is buried- Padre Martinez, as well. Father of at least 14 children, political influence- first news press and printed Dawn of Liberty- printed first text books before when New Mexico was even a territory. Taos third oldest town in the country. 20 miles north of Demming called City of Rock state park- lava field rock formation, featured in several early movies. Another historical State Park in NM is Poncho Villa state park March 9th, 1916 small detachment of US army stationed at Columbus- Camp Furlong (?). During the night, the soldiers of Francisco Villa and attacked Columbus 147+ men killed, the citizens were hit and the town was burned. People from Demming came down to try to catch Poncho Villa. Wanted a shipment of Winchester rifles- people think that Poncho Villa was paid to do this by the US. President Wilson wanted to emerge from the European war as the "Prince of Peace". He had tried to call out the militia, and only two states responded; Wilson knew if he could federalize the militia he could to into France with a highly trained army. After Ponco Villa, militia was federalized and Wilson might have thought a good training would to be to track Poncho into Mexico and kill him. No matter where you go in New Mexico, you are walking on history- just have to dig to find it. Albuquerque Historical Society; MP3 Converted, September 19, 1968

Historic Value of State Parks of New Mexico by Phil Cooke; First meeting of the '68 season of Albuquerque's Historical Society. After New Mexico became apart of the United States union, 1846,. 1890s George Musgrave cowboy came out of Roswell, led by George Parker. Parker informed the wrestling gang that he and Musgrave were apart of. Bill Christian met up w Musgrave and Christian became known as Blackjack Christian. These two and three others formed a gang called the High Fives- SW section of New Mexico in 1895. Cole Estes, Loomis (marshal) killed Estes on train that they were robbing. Musgrave showed up on a ranch in Roswell where Parker was living after informing on his old gang, where Musgrave murdered Parker. 1897 Christian died in Clifton, Arizona during a raid. Newspapers took the name of Blackjack and gave it to another outlaw Thomas E. Ketchum who in 1901 in Clayton was hanged. After Christian died, the High Fives up to Grants Siding (just Grants now), and held up a train by unhitching engine and baggage car two miles up the track. Looted over 6 figures work of loot. Firemen tried to bring up the carts back up to rest of train but overshot, crashed it, and started a fire in Grants Siding station. 1897 Thanksgiving time, they took over Frontierist, Mexico- Mexican authorities caught them and put them in jail. Only 9000 dollars on them, so rest of the loot is somewhere on the trail from Grants to where they were caught in Mexico, and then disappeared. Musgrave went by Jesse Williams and/or Jeff Davis was able to disappear 1910 Musgrave was arrested and tried for the murder of parker, but was acquitted and Musgrave disappeared again. He went to South America- Argentina, and all over South America. He robbed trains, gambled, etc. and eventually married and settled down. 1947 died in Argentina a respected citizen. Roswell has Bottomless Lakes State Park- 5-6 lakes; one of these lakes was named after Jay C. Lee father of present city of Roswell. Ashton Upson first postmaster. Lee became established rancher in New Mexico- was aquantentces with Billy the Kid. Bottomless Lake was called because cowboys were curious- "how deep are these lakes?". Let rocks down with rope and couldn't find the bottom because of caves, caverns, etc. 190tf deep, now used to train scuba divers. Kit Carson Memorial State Park in Taos- encompass where he is buried- Padre Martinez, as well. Father of at least 14 children, political influence- first news press and printed Dawn of Liberty- printed first text books before when New Mexico was even a territory. Taos third oldest town in the country. 20 miles north of Demming called City of Rock state park- lava field rock formation, featured in several early movies. Another historical State Park in NM is Poncho Villa state park March 9th, 1916 small detachment of US army stationed at Columbus- Camp Furlong (?). During the night, the soldiers of Francisco Villa and attacked Columbus 147+ men killed, the citizens were hit and the town was burned. People from Demming came down to try to catch Poncho Villa. Wanted a shipment of Winchester rifles- people think that Poncho Villa was paid to do this by the US. President Wilson wanted to emerge from the European war as the "Prince of Peace". He had tried to call out the militia, and only two states responded; Wilson knew if he could federalize the militia he could to into France with a highly trained army. After Ponco Villa, militia was federalized and Wilson might have thought a good training would to be to track Poncho into Mexico and kill him. No matter where you go in New Mexico, you are walking on history- just have to dig to find it. Albuquerque Historical Society; MP3 Converted, September 19, 1968, Box: 1. Albuquerque Bernalillo County Special Collections Library.

Historic Value of State Parks of New Mexico by Phil Cooke; First meeting of the '68 season of Albuquerque's Historical Society. After New Mexico became apart of the United States union, 1846,. 1890s George Musgrave cowboy came out of Roswell, led by George Parker. Parker informed the wrestling gang that he and Musgrave were apart of. Bill Christian met up w Musgrave and Christian became known as Blackjack Christian. These two and three others formed a gang called the High Fives- SW section of New Mexico in 1895. Cole Estes, Loomis (marshal) killed Estes on train that they were robbing. Musgrave showed up on a ranch in Roswell where Parker was living after informing on his old gang, where Musgrave murdered Parker. 1897 Christian died in Clifton, Arizona during a raid. Newspapers took the name of Blackjack and gave it to another outlaw Thomas E. Ketchum who in 1901 in Clayton was hanged. After Christian died, the High Fives up to Grants Siding (just Grants now), and held up a train by unhitching engine and baggage car two miles up the track. Looted over 6 figures work of loot. Firemen tried to bring up the carts back up to rest of train but overshot, crashed it, and started a fire in Grants Siding station. 1897 Thanksgiving time, they took over Frontierist, Mexico- Mexican authorities caught them and put them in jail. Only 9000 dollars on them, so rest of the loot is somewhere on the trail from Grants to where they were caught in Mexico, and then disappeared. Musgrave went by Jesse Williams and/or Jeff Davis was able to disappear 1910 Musgrave was arrested and tried for the murder of parker, but was acquitted and Musgrave disappeared again. He went to South America- Argentina, and all over South America. He robbed trains, gambled, etc. and eventually married and settled down. 1947 died in Argentina a respected citizen. Roswell has Bottomless Lakes State Park- 5-6 lakes; one of these lakes was named after Jay C. Lee father of present city of Roswell. Ashton Upson first postmaster. Lee became established rancher in New Mexico- was aquantentces with Billy the Kid. Bottomless Lake was called because cowboys were curious- "how deep are these lakes?". Let rocks down with rope and couldn't find the bottom because of caves, caverns, etc. 190tf deep, now used to train scuba divers. Kit Carson Memorial State Park in Taos- encompass where he is buried- Padre Martinez, as well. Father of at least 14 children, political influence- first news press and printed Dawn of Liberty- printed first text books before when New Mexico was even a territory. Taos third oldest town in the country. 20 miles north of Demming called City of Rock state park- lava field rock formation, featured in several early movies. Another historical State Park in NM is Poncho Villa state park March 9th, 1916 small detachment of US army stationed at Columbus- Camp Furlong (?). During the night, the soldiers of Francisco Villa and attacked Columbus 147+ men killed, the citizens were hit and the town was burned. People from Demming came down to try to catch Poncho Villa. Wanted a shipment of Winchester rifles- people think that Poncho Villa was paid to do this by the US. President Wilson wanted to emerge from the European war as the "Prince of Peace". He had tried to call out the militia, and only two states responded; Wilson knew if he could federalize the militia he could to into France with a highly trained army. After Ponco Villa, militia was federalized and Wilson might have thought a good training would to be to track Poncho into Mexico and kill him. No matter where you go in New Mexico, you are walking on history- just have to dig to find it. Albuquerque Historical Society; MP3 Converted, September 19, 1968, Box: 1. Albuquerque Bernalillo County Special Collections Library. https://nmarchives.unm.edu/repositories/9/archival_objects/536093 Accessed December 22, 2024.