Friends of the Lincoln Historic Site

08/07/2026

The wonderful folks from Marrowbone Springs are back again this year entertaining large crowds (safely!) with historical reenactments of some of the famous shootouts from Lincoln's wild Frontier past. There's still plenty more coming up this weekend, come check it out!

08/07/2026

Today is the start of Old Lincoln Days, and the first weekend performance of the annual Billy the Kid Pageant, one of the oldest such pageants left in the country! Come see the campy retelling of Billy the Kid's last and greatest escape from Lincoln in 1881, performed from a script that is largely unchanged since the 1940s. While you're here you can also see historical reenactments and talks throughout the day, shop local vendors, enjoy food and brews, tour the historic sites and more! Hope to see you here!

07/01/2026

Old Lincoln Days is coming up in just a few weeks! It's Lincoln's biggest event of the year with gunfighters, talks, vendors and of course the annual Last Escape of Billy the Kid pageant performed daily over the three day event weekend. Our friends at Bad Hoss Map Company put together this neat poster showing the history of rainfall over the last 45 years of Old Lincoln Days, which is always the first full weekend of August. Bring your hat!

Old Lincoln Days is right around the corner so we put together something fun to help get you in the mood. For years I've heard it said around Lincoln that "it always rains on Old Lincoln Days!" I have a lot of memories of quick rainshowers at some point during the event weekend, and it makes sense, since summer is the rainy season. So I pulled rainfall data for the entire event weekend going back to 1981, the furthest back we have reliable daily data. Turns out that 89% of Old Lincoln Days weekends for the last 45 years did have some rainfall, and 38% of them saw rain showers all three days! Don't let this dampen your spirit. Due to geography, Lincoln rarely has long rainy days. Normally it's sun all day except for a cooling afternoon shower. I put together this poster detailing daily rainfall totals for the last 45 years of Old Lincoln Days and included a few charts summarizing the numbers. Old Lincoln Days is always the first full weekend of August so it's coming up fast. Be sure to bring a hat!

05/30/2026

Recent preservation work at the Torreón in Lincoln is a powerful reminder that caring for historic places is never finished. It is a responsibility passed from one generation to the next.

The Torreón is one of Lincoln’s oldest and most recognizable landmarks. Believed to date to the founding era of La Placita del Rio Bonito in the 1850s, this stone defensive tower was built during a time when Hispano settlers in the Bonito Valley faced danger and uncertainty on the New Mexico frontier. Long before Lincoln became known for the Lincoln County War, Billy the Kid, and Pat Garrett, the Torreón stood as a place of protection, community, and survival.

Its preservation story is also central to Lincoln’s history. Shortly after citizens voted to move the county seat from Lincoln to Carrizozo in 1909, local residents began advocating to protect the town’s historical integrity. Those efforts gained momentum as public fascination with the Lincoln County War and Billy the Kid grew, especially after Walter Noble Burns’ bestselling The Saga of Billy the Kid was published in 1927.

In 1934, Lincoln completed its first major preservation project: the restoration of the Torreón. Funded by the Works Progress Administration and completed under the direction of the Chaves County Historical and Archaeological Society, that work helped inspire later efforts to preserve the broader historic community.

Today’s work continues that legacy. The current mud plastering of the Torreón’s exterior is largely cosmetic, thanks to the permanent stabilization of the stone superstructure completed in the 1930s. But as a community-involved project, it also echoes the way Lincoln’s residents would likely have come together historically to maintain and protect this important defensive structure.

The work is being led by Cornerstones and the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps, with help from the community. The Friends of Historic Lincoln were proud to provide the dirt for the mud plaster, using local earth removed during a recent water system upgrade in Lincoln. In that way, the project is not only preserving the Torreón, but doing so with material quite literally drawn from the community itself.

The Torreón reminds us that Lincoln’s history did not begin with legend. It began with community.

05/22/2026

Here's an update on the movement of the Seven Cabins fire. Lincoln still seems safe for the time being.

I was hoping I wouldn't have to make one of these but the fire is still growing, albeit slowly. Right now the fire is about 12 miles north of Lincoln, as the crow flies, and primarily spreading south and west.

04/17/2026

Recently we received an email from a visitor to Lincoln, a descendent of the Fresquez family for whom one of our historic homes is named. We were so tickled by it we had to share:

"It was such an incredibly fantastic visit there today! Brought a lot of joy to our Fresquez family and got to see the Grandkids running where their Great Grandpa Ernesto probably ran when he was a little boy too! Thank you for maintaining this amazing historical site in Lincoln, New Mexico where my Dad was born!"

It's messages like this that remind us why our mission to help preserve Lincoln is so important! Here is a present-day photo of the Fresquez house, and an undated (but very old) historic photo of the Fresquez house from our archives. Thanks to all of our visitors, and to those who have made generous donations over the years. If you'd like to donate, please visit our brand new website to easily make a donation online. Thank you!