Placitas, also known as La Placita [2] and Las Placitas del Rio Bonito, [3] in Lincoln County, New Mexico [4] is a now abandoned village along the frontier between the New Mexico Territory and Confederate Arizona that was the site of the Battle of Placito, between Apache and native New Mexicans aided by Confederate soldiers from Fort Stanton, ten miles away to the north. The village was originally called La Placita del Rio Bonito (The Place by the Pretty River), Placitas is now known as Lincoln. The village has historical ties to Billy the Kid. [5] [6]
The area was originally inhabited by local Indigeous peoples, the Mogollon, later the Piros people, followed by the Mescalero Apache. In the 1850s, the village was established by Native New Mexican settlers from the North who spoke Spanish. The Torréon tower was one of the first structures built in the village as a defensive fortification. [7] [1]
Placitas is located at 33°29′31″N105°23′02″W / 33.49194°N 105.38389°W Coordinates: 33°29′31″N105°23′02″W / 33.49194°N 105.38389°W .
Lincoln County is a county in the U.S. state of New Mexico. As of the 2010 census, the population was 20,497. Its county seat is Carrizozo, while its largest community is Ruidoso.
Ruidoso Downs is a city in Lincoln County, New Mexico, United States, located within the Lincoln National Forest. The population was 1,824 at the 2000 census and 2,815 at the 2010 census. Originally incorporated as a village, it became a city in May 2002. Known locally as "the Downs", Ruidoso Downs is a suburb of adjacent Ruidoso and is a part of the Ruidoso Micropolitan Statistical Area. The city, located along U.S. Route 70, is named after the Ruidoso Downs Race Track, which is located in the city along with the Billy the Kid Casino and the Hubbard Museum of the American West.
Mescalero or Mescalero Apache is an Apache tribe of Southern Athabaskan–speaking Native Americans. The tribe is federally recognized as the Mescalero Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Apache Reservation, located in south-central New Mexico.
Lincoln is an unincorporated village in Lincoln County, New Mexico, United States.
The Tularosa Basin is a graben basin in the Basin and Range Province and within the Chihuahuan Desert, east of the Rio Grande in southern New Mexico and West Texas, in the Southwestern United States.
Lincoln National Forest is a unit of the U.S. Forest Service located in southern New Mexico. Established by Presidential Proclamation in 1902 as the Lincoln Forest Reserve, the 1,103,897 acres (4,467.31 km2) forest begins near the Texas border and contains lands in parts of Chaves, Eddy, Lincoln, and Otero counties. The three Ranger Districts within the forest contain all or part of four mountain ranges, and include a variety of different environmental areas, from desert to heavily forested mountains and sub-alpine grasslands. Established to balance conservation, resource management, and recreation, the lands of the Lincoln National Forest include important local timber resources, protected wilderness areas, and popular recreation and winter sports areas. The forest headquarters is located in Alamogordo, N.M. with local offices in Carlsbad, Cloudcroft, and Ruidoso.
Fort Stanton was a United States Army fort near Lincoln, New Mexico.
Fort Craig was a U.S. Army fort located along El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, near Elephant Butte Lake State Park and the Rio Grande in Socorro County, New Mexico.
The Albuquerque Metropolitan Statistical Area, sometimes referred to as Tiguex, is a metropolitan area in central New Mexico centered on the city of Albuquerque. The metro comprises four counties: Bernalillo, Sandoval, Torrance, and Valencia. As of the 2010 United States Census, the MSA had a population of 887,077. The population is estimated to be 923,630 as of July 1, 2020, making Greater Albuquerque the 61st-largest MSA in the nation. The Albuquerque MSA forms a part of the larger Albuquerque–Santa Fe–Las Vegas combined statistical area with a 2020 estimated population of 1,165,181, ranked 49th-largest in the country.
William J. Brady was an American soldier, politician, and law enforcement officer who served as the sheriff of Lincoln County during the Lincoln County Wars in New Mexico, United States. He was murdered in an ambush, aged 48, by the Lincoln County Regulators and Billy the Kid.
San Patricio is a very small community in Lincoln County, in the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is located on the Rio Ruidoso and U.S. Highway 70, between the communities of Hondo and Glencoe. It is just east of the Lincoln National Forest.
The Battle of Lincoln, New Mexico, was a five-day-long firefight between the Murphy-Dolan Faction and the Regulators that took place between July 15–19, 1878, in Lincoln, New Mexico. It was the largest armed battle of the Lincoln County War in the New Mexico Territory. The firefight was interrupted and suppressed by United States Cavalry led by Lt. Col. Nathan Dudley from Fort Stanton.
Lincoln Historic District is a historic district encompassing the community of Lincoln, New Mexico. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1966. The historic district contains 48 structures, some privately held, 12 miles (19 km) east of Capitan and 57 miles (92 km) west of Roswell along U.S. Route 380.
The Battle of Canada Alamosa as it was known to the Union Army, or Alamosa as it was known to the Confederates, was a skirmish of the American Civil War on the late evening of September 24 and the morning of September 25, 1861. It was one of several small battles that occurred in Confederate Arizona near the border with Union held New Mexico Territory, this one being the largest.
The Gallinas massacre or the Gallinas Mountains massacre was an engagement of the Apache Wars on September 2, 1861, between a war party of Mescalero Apache warriors and four Confederate soldiers in the Gallinas Mountains of what is now Lincoln County, New Mexico. The incident occurred early in the American Civil War, at a time when the area was claimed by the Confederate States of America as part of Confederate Arizona and military control of the territory had not yet been decisively established by either Union or Confederate forces.
The Battle of Placito or Battle of the Placito was an engagement between ethnic Mexican settlers, Confederate soldiers and Apache warriors. It took place at the village of Placitas in Confederate Arizona. The action is a part of the Apache Wars of the mid to late nineteenth century.
The Rio Bonito is a small river in the Sierra Blanca mountains of southern New Mexico, United States. The headwaters of the river start in the Lincoln National Forest on the slopes of Sierra Blanca and travel eastward until they merge with the south fork of the Rio Bonito just west of Bonito Lake, a man-made reservoir. After passing through the reservoir, the river continues in a generally eastward direction passing through the historic Fort Stanton and the home of Billy the Kid, Lincoln, New Mexico. 10 miles (16 km) past Lincoln the Rio Bonito merges with the Rio Ruidoso in the town of Hondo, New Mexico where the two rivers join to form the Rio Hondo which then flows towards the Pecos River. Though not reaching the Pecos except during floods.
The White Mountain Wilderness is a 46,963 acre designated wilderness area managed by the United States Forest Service. Located in the Smokey Bear Ranger District of the Lincoln National Forest, the White Mountain Wilderness lies in the Sierra Blanca mountains of south central New Mexico, approximately 15 miles (24 km) north northwest of the town of Ruidoso.
Hondo is an unincorporated community in Lincoln County, New Mexico, United States. It is located about thirty-five miles downstream (east) from Ruidoso Downs, where the Rio Bonito and Rio Ruidoso rivers join together to form the Rio Hondo. It is located at the point where U.S. Route 70 is joined by U.S. Route 380, which conjoined route continues eastward. It has had a post office since 1900.
San Ygnacio de la Alamosa, also known as Alamosa, is now a ghost town, in Sierra County, New Mexico, United States. San Ygnacio de la Alamosa was founded in 1859 as a native New Mexican colonizing settlement from San Antonio. The site of the new colony was along the west bank of the Rio Grande, 35 miles south of Fort Craig, on the south bank of Alamosa Creek nearby its mouth and confluence with the Rio Grande, in what was then southern Socorro County.