6 Best Sights in Southeastern New Mexico, New Mexico

When church services, weddings, funerals, and other regularly scheduled functions are not taking place here, Lincoln's historic Iglesia de San Juan Bautista, originally built in 1887, can be viewed free. The tiny church was built and restored entirely from local materials. Roof beams and other wood elements including latillas (small branches laid on top of larger, rounded wood beams known as vigas) were dragged by oxcart from the nearby Capitan Mountains.

The Lincoln County Courthouse Museum is the building from which Billy the Kid made his famous escape. You can walk in the room where Billy was imprisoned and view a hole in the wall that just might have been caused by the gun he fired during his escape. Display cases contain historical documents, including one of Billy's handwritten, eloquent letters to Governor Lew Wallace, defending his reputation.

José Montaño ran a saloon and boardinghouse within his Montaño Store for more than 30 years after the Civil War. Governor Lew Wallace stayed here when trying to arrange a meeting with Billy the Kid. Today, displayed writings in both English and Spanish describe the history of the site.

Lincoln was first settled by Spanish settlers in the 1840s. The short, round Torreon fortress served as protection from Apache raids in those days; it came in handy during the Lincoln County War, too. Crews restored it in the 1930s.

Nothing has changed much at the Tunstall Store Museum since the days of the Old West. When the state of New Mexico purchased the store in 1957, boxes of stock dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries were discovered here, still unused. The clothes, hardware, butter churns, kerosene lamps, and other items are displayed in the store's original cases.