Billy Roberts / Tim Roberts
Beyond a doubt, Billy the Kid is the most internationally recognizable character in American Western history. Countless authors and artists have spent their entire careers studying and memorializing this man who most likely died before his twenty-second birthday. At the epicenter of this international cult of personality stands the tiny town of Lincoln, New Mexico, and since Billy died in 1881, millions of visitors have made the pilgrimage to the town. More specifically, they travel to see the building from which the famed outlaw made his final violent escape on April 28, 1881. Now known as the Historic Lincoln County Courthouse, this building sits squarely at the core of both the story of Billy the Kid and how Lincoln’s citizens saved their community from destruction.The story of the Courthouse is more than just the tale of a physical building. The structure’s history is a chronicle of the men who built it, the community it served, and the development of the American Southwest. L.G. Murphy and Co. did not break ground on the building until 1873, but the idea behind the building started long before then. In many ways, the structure represents the culmination of years of non-native expansion into the American Southwest, significant shifts in who held power over the region, and a realization of the American ideal of Manifest Destiny.By 1936, the building was in danger of collapsing, and county officials discussed the possibility of demolishing the structure entirely. Thankfully, a dedicated group of concerned citizens recognized the structure’s significance and successfully saved the old building from demolition. For more than a year, workers endeavored to restore the building, and in 1939, the courthouse reopened as a state-operated museum. The successful preservation of the courthouse paved the way for more projects in the historic hamlet of Lincoln, serving as a model for expanded efforts to preserve the town and launching a decades long effort to make Lincoln the most well-preserved frontier town in the American West.
