Lincoln is an unincorporated village in Lincoln County,

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

, United States.

Description

The community sits in the Bonito Valley between the

Sacramento Mountains The Sacramento Mountains are a mountain range in the south-central part of the U.S. state of New Mexico, lying just east of Alamogordo in Otero County (small portions of the range lie in Lincoln County and Chaves County). From north to south, ...

and the

Capitan Mountains The Capitan Mountains are a mountain range in Lincoln County, in south-central New Mexico in the southwestern United States. The range is about 20 miles (32 km) long from east to west being about 6 miles (10 km) wide and were formed fr ...

at an elevation of 5,696 feet. The village is located approximately 57 miles (92 km) west of Roswell (by road) and just south of the

Lincoln National Forest 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 forest begins near the Texas border and contains lands in parts of ...

. Lincoln is the primary community in zip code 88338, which had a population of 189 residents in the 2010 census. The village is centered around a 1 mile stretch of

U.S. Route 380 U.S. Route 380 (US 380) is an east–west United States highway. The highway's eastern terminus is in Greenville, Texas at an intersection with Interstate 30, of which the easternmost 3–4 miles are concurrent with US 69 in a loop around t ...

(also known as the Billy the Kid Trail), which is the village's only street. Numerous historic structures dating as far back as the late 1800s still remain, many of which have been preserved and now operate as public museums. Originally called La Placita del Rio Bonito (The Place by the Pretty River) by the Mexican families who settled it in the 1850s, the name of the community was changed to Lincoln when Lincoln County was created on January 16, 1869. Lincoln was at the center of the Lincoln County War, 1876-1879, and is primarily known today for its historical ties to

Billy the Kid Billy the Kid (born Henry McCarty; September 17 or November 23, 1859July 14, 1881), also known by the pseudonym William H. Bonney, was an outlaw and gunfighter of the American Old West, who killed eight men before he was shot and killed at t ...

. The village holds an annual festival called Old Lincoln Days in August featuring an open-air enactment of ''The Last Escape of Billy the Kid''. Lincoln has been Federally designated as the Lincoln Historic District, and also as a New Mexico State Monument called th
Lincoln Historic Site
These designations, along with the efforts of generations of local residents, have made Lincoln one of the best preserved old west towns left in existence and the most visited monument in the State of New Mexico. For about a year during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the Old Raton Ranch, an abandoned

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was a major part of ...

camp on the outskirts of Lincoln, was used to confine

Japanese American are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 census, they have declined in number to constitute the sixth largest Asi ...

railroad workers and their families. All 32 internees came from

Clovis, New Mexico Clovis is a city in and the county seat of Curry County, New Mexico. The city had a population of 37,775 as of the 2010 census, and a 2019 estimated population of 38,319. Clovis is located in the New Mexico portion of the Llano Estacado, in the ...

; the town's entire Japanese American population was placed under house arrest shortly after the

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, j ...

brought the U.S. into the war, and the

Immigration and Naturalization Service The United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was an agency of the U.S. Department of Labor from 1933 to 1940 and the U.S. Department of Justice from 1940 to 2003. Referred to by some as former INS and by others as legacy INS, ...

"evacuated" them to Lincoln on January 23, 1942. Unlike the " assembly centers" where most Japanese Americans spent the first months of their wartime incarceration, access to school, employment and recreational activities was not permitted in Lincoln. On December 18, 1942, the internees were transferred to several of the more public concentration camps run by the

War Relocation Authority The War Relocation Authority (WRA) was a United States government agency established to handle the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. It also operated the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter in Oswego, New York, which was t ...

Tourism and entertainment

Food and lodging

The histori
Wortley Hotel
once owned by Pat Garrett and central to the story of

, began serving guests in 1874 and still provides lodging to travelers. Lincoln also has a bar, th
Bonito Valley Brewing Company
which serves a selection of locally brewed beer and non-alcoholic beverages
Annie's Little Sureshot Cafe
serves coffee and snacks, and meals are served at the histori
Dolan House

Historic attractions

Lincoln has numerous historic structures, nine of which are open to the public as museums operated b
New Mexico Historic Sites
These include th
Courthouse
where

killed deputies James W. Bell and

Bob Olinger Robert Ameredith B. "Pecos Bob" Olinger (1850 in Delphi, Indiana – April 28, 1881 in Lincoln, New Mexico) was a frontier lawman best known as the last victim of Billy the Kid and as a participant in the Lincoln County War. Early life and care ...

, th
Tunstall Store
th
Convento
th
Torreon
and others
The Anderson Freeman Visitor's Center
has interpretive displays and artifacts that depict the history of Lincoln and the Bonito Valley.

Nearby attractions

Fort Stanton Historic Site

Smokey Bear Historical Park
*

Snowy River Cave Snowy River Cave Passage is a cave passage within Fort Stanton Cave in Lincoln County, New Mexico, obtaining its name from a stream bed of white calcite. Geology The bed of Snowy River is covered with bright white calcite. Over time, ancient, ...

References

External links

New Mexico Historic Sites: Lincoln

Friends of Historic Lincoln New Mexico
{{authority control Unincorporated communities in New Mexico Unincorporated communities in Lincoln County, New Mexico