Travels in Lincoln County, New Mexico
Searching for Living Legends in Capitan and Beyond
Travelers who want to find The Wild West of western movies and romantic histories can find traces of Billy the Kid and rugged landscapes along highway 380 in southern New Mexico, but they'll find a lot more, too.
Taming The Wild West—Smokey Bear and the Fourth of July in Capitan, New Mexico
Capitan straggles along either side of Highway 380, dribbles out into the desert on the west side, and disappears in the folds of the mountains to the north. The village’s biggest attraction is the Smokey Bear museum, a log cabin crammed with yellowing newspaper clippings, hatpins, plush bears, and old board games. Shopping options are limited, and entertainment choices are even scarcer — except on the Fourth of July.
On the Fourth of July, Capitan residents, cowboys from nearby ranches, and a tourist or two line up along highway that runs through town. Travelers heading west on 380 slow to a crawl and become a prelude to the parade.
The parade itself features sheriff’s posses riding horses brushed shiny and sprinkled with glitter. Flatbed trailers provide moving stages for patriotically clad square dancers. Smokey Bear, in one form or another, appears on almost every passing car, truck, and horse, as do banners, bumper stickers, and posters declaring, “Support Our Troops” and “Freedom Isn’t Free.” Every entry tosses candy to the crowd, and dozens of volunteer fire department trucks bring up the rear, sirens blasting.
The Legacies of a Fat Man and Little Boy
About forty-five minutes west of Capitan on Highway 380, just beyond the black lava of the “badlands,” lies a wide basin ringed by mountains and filled with Joshua trees, herds of antelope, and signs warning of blowing dust. Smack in the middle of the basin sit the three buildings that make up the town of Bingham, New Mexico.
The house on the north side of the highway advertises books about the Trinity site. The two buildings on the south side of the highway form a rock shop complex. Most of the rocks for sale are too big to fit inside either of the buildings, so the rocks are arranged on tables and in piles supervised by a longhaired black and white cat. Inside the main shop, glass cases display geodes, polished rocks, and, as advertised in big red letters on a weathered white board outside the shop, trinitite.
Trinitite is the pale green radioactive glass formed by the atomic bombs Fat Man and Little Boy when they were dropped at 5:30 a.m. on July 16, 1945, in the white sand dunes lying just beyond the fringe of mountains to the south of Bingham. Small chunks of trinitite the size of a fingernail sell for $20. Larger pieces sell by the ounce. Greenish-gray, smooth, and surprisingly lightweight, trinitite seems innocuous enough, a forgettable reminder of an unforgettable event.
Robert Oppenheimer chose to test his bombs here for a number of reasons, one of which was that this corner of New Mexico was sparsely populated in 1945. Today, it still is. Love of this unforgiving landscape comes slowly, if at all. Cattle and people struggle to survive on a harsh, dry land studded with cacti and coyotes. Self-reliant individualism formed by wide spaces between neighbors is the order of the day. Billy the Kid is a hero here, and re-enactments of his escape from the Lincoln jail are staged every summer in Lincoln, the adobe town where bullet holes left from the Lincoln County War in the late 1800s are still preserved.
The Wild West may be a stereotype created by a set on the back lot of a movie studio, but it’s a marketable attraction, too, and one that’s close enough to reality that sometimes the line blurs between the two. But whether it's a real cowboy working on a ranch at the foot of the mountains or an actor playing the role of Billy the Kid, the legends — and the modern-day hospitality — are worth getting to know a little better.
Hit the Highlights
- Capitan, New Mexico, is a quiet village with a smattering of good restaurants (BBQ, Mexican food, and homestyle gourmet), a gas station, and Smokey Bear museum. A high point of the year is the Fourth of July parade and rodeo.
- Bingham, New Mexico, is the place to go for Trinitite, the pale green radioactive glass formed by the atomic bombs Fat Man and Little Boy.
- When exploring this area, Ruidoso is the place to stay, with a number of motels, cabins, and rental properties to suit all budgets, as well as a wide variety of shops and restaurants.
Capitan 4th of July Parade
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Near Bingham, New Mexico
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