Area Attraction In Albuquerque Nm

JAY MILLER: Billy the Kid always will be an icon

Billy the Kid keeps producing for New Mexico. Recently, he was the subject of a statewide treasure hunt that put millions of extra dollars into the state tourism industry, according to new tourism secretary Monique Jacobson.

More recently, The Kid was the subject of a History Channel documentary, which is still in reruns. And next month, a Public Broadcasting System hour-long special on Billy will begin airing featuring many New Mexicans and other authorities in the field.

Why, you ask, is a long-dead, no-good cowboy having so much effect on our culture? Well, former Gov. Bill Richardson spent over a year soon after he took office in a controversial effort to dig him up. That controversy stretched from Texas to Arizona and involved numerous lawsuits, some of which still are continuing.

Then there was Richardson's abortive effort to pardon Billy for shooting Sheriff Brady on the main street of Lincoln. Former Gov. Lew Wallace may have promised Billy a pardon on that one, but if so, he reneged and Richardson wanted to know why.

In the process, people from around the world weighed in on the question and Richardson ended his term without granting the pardon.

But the real reason The Kid attracts so much attention around the world is that to a great many he isn't a juvenile delinquent, cattle thief and cop killer, as many New Mexicans see him.

Billy the Kid also was a talented, orphaned fighter for the little guy against a ruthless government. Billy didn't rob banks, stagecoaches or trains. He took what he needed to survive and shared the rest with the needy.

He was intelligent, had excellent handwriting, was musical and somehow knew the words to all the church songs. Fate led him to having to scramble for a living in the Old West. And I may not need to tell you how much the Old West is revered in much of the rest of the world.

So we may just have to learn to accept our most famous New Mexican as an attraction to the rest of the world.

Four die in New Mexico crash as blizzard hits area « Artesia News

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A major winter storm wreaked havoc on holiday travel across New Mexico as rare blizzard conditions shut down virtually all major highways in the northeastern quarter of the state and contributed to a fatal accident near the Texas border.

Four people were killed and two others seriously injured in a two-vehicle accident on U.S. 60/84 east of Melrose, the Curry County Sheriff’s Office reported late Monday. And throughout the day motorists in the state were left stranded in whiteout conditions that were expected to rage through the night.

Curry County authorities said in a statement that a “Ford pickup truck” and a “Toyota passenger vehicle” traveling in opposite directions “collided during inclement weather conditions” Monday afternoon. Clovis police spokesman Roman Romero said no other details regarding the crash were immediately available and that an investigation is ongoing.

All four occupants of the Toyota died at the scene. Police are not releasing the victims’ identities until family can be contacted.

The occupants of the pickup, 67-year-old James Townson and 41-year-old Deanna Trujillo, were seriously injured and taken to a hospital.

Elsewhere, more than 150 miles of Interstate 25 between Santa Fe and the Colorado border and all routes headed east from Raton toward the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles were shut down late Monday afternoon. Farther south, Interstate 40 was closed from Santa Rosa to the Texas state line. State police said they expected the roads to stay closed throughout the night.

An unknown number of motorists were stuck along rural highways like U.S. routes 64 and 54 when blizzard conditions first hit Monday morning, said Clayton police dispatcher Cindy Blackwell.

“It’s really bad here,” she said. “The phones are ringing off the hook” with calls from stranded drivers. “All I can do is answer the phones and call the state police.

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