Michael Swickard
Years ago, at an informal meeting of tourism planners, I watched as they searched for money-making ideas. One said New Mexico wastes perfectly good weekends when there are no celebrations. The “tourist-to-local ratio” turns heavily local. The group agreed that we already have the local’s money; we need more tourists.
So they ordered another round of drinks and brainstormed celebrations. Here are a few of the “better” ones: Dust Days (March or April), Cow Chip Days (any month), Bow Tie Days, Horned Toad Days, Siesta Days, and my personal favorite, Hot Steering Wheel Days.
But seriously folks… A while back a television crew from Phoenix came to Las Cruces to do a story on famed Old West Sheriff Pat Garrett. They called on me because the idea for the television story was inspired by one of my columns.
Pat Garrett was a real-life hero who was honored and respected, while Billy the Kid is a myth made up in the 1926 book by Walter Noble Burns. It is an insult to the Garrett family when people celebrate a myth and forget the real story. Over the last 30 years I write a yearly column because I feel we should not celebrate an outlaw scum who rustled cattle, stole horses and killed unarmed people.
A Pat Garrett celebration
Consider this: A celebration of Pat Garrett would get national attention and, even more importantly, send the correct message about gangs and outlaws to our children. It is true that Garrett had rough edges, as did many people in those days. He was no saint, though comparing Garrett to the Kid is like comparing Charlie Sheen to Charles Manson. One is a bad boy while the other is a monster.
In August each year there is the Lincoln Days Celebration in Lincoln County celebrating Billy the Kid. Each year I do not go celebrate an outlaw thug. Instead, I bore my friends and acquaintances with Garrett stories. Each year I bend every elbow and ear I can find by pushing the idea of New Mexico Pat Garrett Days in Las Cruces to give tourists a choice of who they want to celebrate.
Know this: I am not one of those “nuts” who thinks all celebrations have to be entirely “truth” based. We can have fun with a Pat Garrett Celebration. Example: I give my “Roswell $mirk” when the subject of space aliens comes up. Hey, a good time is had by all. But I do not have that same feeling about Billy the Kid.
My grandmother taught in a one-room school and roomed with Susan McSween Barber, one of the Lincoln County War’s central survivors. I was steeped in the Lincoln County War stories as a child. But I take my cue from my grandmother, who was much more interested in the Garretts as a New Mexico family, especially Elizabeth, the blind daughter who wrote New Mexico’s first state song.
Despite liking her host, she joined most of New Mexico in celebrating Pat Garrett and vilifying Billy the Kid. It was that way in New Mexico until the publication of the Walter Noble Burns revised history book. We have had a couple of generations that did not realize they were celebrating a Charles Manson type.
Introducing law and order
The Billy the Kid story we know is false. In Ft. Sumner there is a Billy the Kid headstone that tourists stand before reverently with nothing under it. No one knows where the Kid’s remains are buried. Pat Garrett’s grave is surrounded by family and friends in the Masonic Cemetery in Las Cruces. He was a real person who made a difference in our state. He had guts and gumption and fought the outlaws.
President Theodore Roosevelt said, upon learning of Pat Garrett’s death, that Garrett was not the man who upheld the arm of law and order in New Mexico; he was the first man to introduce law and order. Pretty high praise from the president of the United States.
A Pat Garrett Days celebration is a lot better than holding Scum Days just because some tourists do not know old west scum from an old west hero.
Swickard is co-host of the radio talk show News New Mexico, which airs from 6 to 9 a.m. Monday through Friday on KSNM-AM 570 in Las Cruces and throughout the state through streaming. His e-mail address is michael@swickard.com.