Explore the legend of Billy the Kid

Published 5:00 am Thursday, July 30, 2009

The New Mexico Tourism Department has launched a Web site dedicated to Billy the Kid.

The site has links to maps and tours in Billy the Kid territory, including a complete six-day itinerary, at www.new mexico.org/billythekid.

State Tourism Secretary Michael Cerletti says the site is “a travel experience unlike any other in New Mexico,” where visitors can retrace the steps of the famous young outlaw and the sheriff credited with shooting him.

Places featured on the travel Web site include Silver City, where you’ll find markers noting the sites of Billy the Kid’s boyhood home, one of the foster homes he lived in, and the city jail, which he escaped by shimmying up the chimney.

The outlaw was tried of murder in a courtroom that today is an art gallery and souvenir shop in La Mesilla, and the town’s Gadsden Museum has his jail cell on display.