A few yards from this site, Pat Garrett & posse killed outlaw Charlie Bowdre and captured Billy the Kid - Stinking Springs, NM.
The posse led by Garrett fared well, and his men closed in quickly. On December 19, McCarty barely escaped a midnight ambush in Fort Sumner, which left one member of the gang, Tom O'Folliard, dead. On December 23, the Kid was tracked to an abandoned stone building located in a remote location known as Stinking Springs (near present-day Taiban, New Mexico). While McCarty and his gang were asleep inside, Garrett's posse surrounded the building and waited for sunrise. The next morning, a cattle rustler named Charlie Bowdre stepped outside to feed his horse. Mistaken for McCarty, he was shot down by the posse. Soon afterward, somebody from within the building reached for the horse's halter rope, but Garrett shot and killed the horse, whose body blocked the building's only exit. As the lawmen began to cook breakfast over an open fire, Garrett and McCarty engaged in a friendly exchange, with Garrett inviting McCarty outside to eat, and McCarty inviting Garrett to "go to hell". Realizing that they had no hope of escape, the besieged and hungry outlaws finally surrendered later that day and were allowed to join in the meal.
Size: 2738px × 4115px
Location: Stinking Springs, New Mexico, USA, United States, America
Photo credit: © M L Pearson / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: america, billy, captured, education, kid, mexico, southwest, springs, stinking, tourism, travel, usa, west
