The Kid: I'm no horse thief

I love old news.

Here are some things you might not know from eastern New Mexico’s history:

• In addition to Fort Sumner where he was killed and is buried, Billy the Kid was a frequent visitor to the Portales area.

Portales Springs is dry now, but was once a major watering hole along the trail that connected Fort Sumner to the Texas Panhandle.

It’s located about six miles south of the city of Portales.

The Kid and his friend Charlie Bowdre were known to run horses on ranchland near the springs. Historians believe the horses were usually stolen.

The Kid denied he was a horse thief at least twice.

In a Dec. 12, 1880, letter to Gov. Lew Wallace, he wrote that the Las Vegas Gazette newspaper had called him a “Captain of a Band of Outlaws who hold Forth at the Portales.”

“There is no such organization in existence,” the Kid wrote to the governor. “So the Gentlemen must have drawn very heavily on his imagination.”

In a jailhouse interview with the Las Vegas newspaper on Dec. 27, 1880, the Kid offered details.

“About that Portales business,” he told the reporter, “I owned the ranch with Charlie Bowdre. I took it up and was holding it because I knew that sometime a stage would run by there and I wanted to keep it for a station.”

But the Kid said he had to leave Portales because “certain men ... wouldn’t let me live in the country.”

He told the newspaper he made his living as a gambler.

• Hard-riding, straight-shooting, sweet-singing Gene Autry performed at the Lyceum and Mesa theaters in Clovis on April 25, 1938.

Autry’s parents, Delbert and Elnora Autry, lived in Clovis at the time. The singing cowboy’s sister, Romadel Autry, was born in Clovis on Feb. 4, 1938. A story about her arrival made the front page of the Clovis News-Journal.

The CN-J did not critique Gene Autry’s performances, but did relay two encounters he had with locals — one with a young boy, another with the cops.

As Autry walked to his gig at the Mesa theater, he was approached by a child named Richard Lunsford, who was playing cowboy.

Asked his name, Richard responded: “I am Gene Autry.”

The newspaper’s gossip column, “Up and Down the Street” also reported:

“It seems Chalky is no respecter of celebrities. He slapped an overparking ticket on the cowboy’s automobile.”

• “Hell or High Water” was filmed mostly in eastern New Mexico in 2015, but it wasn’t the region’s introduction to Hollywood.

That probably came when the cast of “Rawhide” showed up in Tucumcari on Aug. 10, 1959.

The TV show filmed on Quay County ranches for six weeks.

Clint Eastwood, Sheb Wooley, Paul Brinegar and other well-known actors lived in the community and frequented its restaurants, especially Del’s and A&W Root Beer.

An autographed photo of Eastwood hung in Del’s for years.

Among the memorable news tidbits was this from United Press International, published Aug. 16, 1959:

“About 60 Navajos from northwestern New Mexico camped in a city park (near Tucumcari) and will join TV actors in filming a series of programs for the ‘Rawhide’ show.

“The Indians appeared in full tribal regalia for the occasion.”

David Stevens is editor for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at: [email protected]