Billy the Kid Musuem

On Friday, June 6, we left Roswell, New Mexico, early in the morning to avoid the sweltering heat, and we headed north to Fort Sumner. New Mexico to the Billy the Kid Museum.

This museum wasn't completely about Billy the Kid as we expected. Instead, it was an eclectic mix of vintage and historic collectibles that the owners, the Sweet's, have been collecting for years. The Sweet's opened their museum in 1953 and the family has been operating it ever since. The Sweet's wanted to help modern day people have a better understanding of the challenges that people of the 1800's and early 1900's endured in their struggle to stay alive and provide for their families. The Museum is filled with amazing finds from the last 150 years.

We pulled up and parked out front, and I thought our "steel horses" looked great in front of the museum.


Randy's brother works at Camp Chef, makers of dutch ovens and these dutch ovens were used by Billy the Kid. We wondered if Camp Chef made these or were these dutch ovens the inspiration for Camp Chef? Hard to imagine Billy the Kid eating out of these ovens.



We were also surprised at the size of these horns. That is one huge bull! Makes my head hurt just to think of carrying these around on one's head. Imagine getting butted by this beast.

Billy the Kid was truly a kid, leaving home when he was 15 and dying at age 21. He's considered a notorious and misunderstood outlaw but learning more about him, it seems like he was a charming kid who got mixed up with the wrong crowd. History repeats itself over and over and I start to think that some teenagers today are like Billy the Kid; good kids hanging with the wrong crowd. The museum had his rifle, see the picture below and few things that belonged to him and lots of information about his life and much about his death.

After our quick tour, we headed North to Santa Rosa to visit Historic Route 66. Which again turned out to be a fabulous ride! We're liking the roads in New Mexico more and more!