Yesterday late we got to FT. Sumner and camped at the Valley View campground. It has all the facilities and is only $20 a night. Not bad for a one night stand. After we got settled we made a run out to the Bosque Redondo and then up to Sumner lake. The Redondo looked nice and new but closed by the time we got there and there is a museum on the corner not part of the State park. We started too late for the visit to the lake as it was getting dark by the time we got there but from what we could see it is a nice spot in the middle of nothing. Appeared to have numerous camping sites and many with electric and water and real nice tables covered and protected (probably from the wind) as it gets real windy out here on the hill tops. Back to the Motorhome and plan for a morning of museum viewing.
First stop – the Billy the Kid museum.
Billy the Kid museum and area memorabilia.
It has a small video presentation from several historians on Billy and his life and several of his actual items mixed in but also has a lot of items from the Fort era and from the area as well, old car, wagons, guns, just a collection of anything and everything. It can take several hours to just walk through and not look to specific at any one things. They have a really good collection of paper articles and picture prints of Billy ( which he was not known during the time as Billy until near his demise). For a way out place it is a nice museum with a lot of stuff to see.
Next we moved off the Bosque Redondo (New Mexico State Park).
Bosque Redondo facility - really not much of a museum on the inside.
The State park is focused on the area not so much artifacts in the building. They do have a really good 30 minute film that gives a good detail of the failure of this experiment in Westward movement and attempted control of the Navajo and Mescalaro Apache. At that time they were considered prisoners of war as the US had waged war on the Indians in a manner they could not fight or stop and was as horrible as any ware in any other place, unfortunately it happened here to people that only wanted to live with out interference. After 6 years the Government even agreed it was a total failure and the Navajo should not have been forced here. This failure cost the lives of over 3000 Navajo and hundreds of Apache. The Redondo Reservation (site of the Long Walk) was over a million acres but in reality only a small portion was used. the large vast portion was harsh country maybe more than the one the Navajo came from but one that they did not know how to exist in.
At the entrance is the meaning of the 5 worlds of the Navajo and through out the park are many definitions and meanings.
The five worlds of the Navajo.”
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We took the Audio tour as well that described all of the various stations in the park. It is well worth the time.
At this site in the far back is the re-creation of some of the Fort Sumner layout and many picture posts tell and show what was built there over 100 years ago. It was a massive undertaking but short lived.
On the way to the Fort area there is the Navajo Travel Shrine. from the write up” Objects on the shrine are left in prayer. Please do not touch or otherwise disturb the shrine.” It was started in 1971 to commemorate those that died here from 1863 to 1868. Recently a returning Navajo from Iraq has placed his Purple Heart medal there.
=”Navajo Travel Shrine”
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Next the re-made entrance to the Fort
[Ft Sumner re-created entrance”
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For more images on the Ft Sumner and Bosque Redondo check this link
Layout of the Fort (none of it stands only re-created walls of the front portion
The Maxwell house “
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After the reservation failed the fort was abandoned and the site and some property for a ranch was bought by Lucien B Maxwell. It was in this house that Billy the Kid was shot in 1881. That is how all this linked together.
The grave of Billy the Kid ( Billy Bonney).
It was noon by the time we got to this point. We had spent all morning touring the museum and the State park. We got back to the motor home, packed it up and headed east again. Our night would be in Amarillo. We only made the decision at the last minute to stay another night in the Walmart parking lot on I-40 as the RV parks we had seen were not much better along the way. Tomorrow? somewhere in Oklahoma – maybe Roman Nose State park if we can get a spot there and go attend the Watonga Cheese Festival. -WD0AJG