Lincoln | New Mexico

Lincoln is full of history about Billy the Kid, who was apparently creating mayhem in this neighborhood.    These buildings were at the Museum/Visitor Center.  They say that this town is the most restored town in the state. 

This is interesting, right in town.  My first guess was some kind of water storage - wrong!  It dates back to the 1850s and it was built to protect the Spanish-Americans from the Apache Indians, called a Torreon.

This is the doorway to get inside.  Low clearance and a huge thick slab of wood for a door.

Inside, there's a ladder leading to the upper level.

I went up to the second level, and found a ladder going further up.

The buildings in town are interesting - restored, but not modernized. 

This is one of the stores.

The shop owner must have lived in one part of it.

A display of chiles and other items that might have been sold way back when.  The dark items hanging against the wall are the chiles that are strung on some type of line and dried.  New Mexico is famous for the chiles, and you'll note they do not spell it "chili", and it's nothing like chili.  It's more of a sauce for flavoring. 

The post office is still in use today.

Sharing the building with the post office is a general store, which was quite interesting and stocked with all sorts of items that were available back in the late 1800s.

Everytime I see these women's shoes, I am amazed that they had really tiny feet - they are not very wide!

This was found in the back room, along with a few other treasures.

Mail truck!

Inside the doctor's office, there were all sorts of medical equipment.

The chandelier in the living room.

Another building that has been kept in good shape. 

I think this is the prettiest building in town, I love the adobe brick wall in front.

The courthouse was also the jail.

The courtroom. 

For some reason, it was also the site of the Masons.

This coach cost $1000 when it was purchased, quite a bit of money in those days..  It could hold up to 9 people, as long as a few of them wanted to sit on the top.  It was drawn with 4 horses and made a whopping 8-9 MPH, on good roads.  It was in use from 1889 - 1912.

I just love these old stoves, and this one is a bit fancy.

The courthouse must have had quite a bit of money passing through it.

Billy the Kid was held in jail in this courthouse.  One day, he managed to escape and stole a pistol.  Below, you can see some bullet holes in the wall.

It is said that he killed the sheriff that day.

Santa Fe, New Mexico

While we weren't photographing hot air balloons during the Fiesta, a few of us took the Rail Runner train to Santa Fe to explore for the day. The train stopped at a few local areas and we were so happy not driving for a change. And it's always fun to have a train ride.

While we were wandering around town, we found a farmers' market with lot of colorful fruits and vegetables, as well as flowers and freshly made bread. This area is famous for the chiles you can see in the photo below. They spell it "chile".



When we found the central plaza, we visited numerous stores and had lunch on a balcony overlooking the plaza. That's the first time ever that I've had a pulled pork sandwich that had hot BBQ sauce!

 

 

Loretto Chapel in town that has a free-standing circular staircase made from wood and does not contain any nails or screws.  During the late 1800s, a craftsman built the entire thing by himself using dowels and wood plugs, with primitive tools and non native wood.  Even today, the identity of the carpenter is still unknown. The stairway was originally built without a railing, but one was added years later.



As we started walking back to the train station, we got a little lost, but found this painted wall.