Pat Garrett Murder Site

Pat Garrett Murder Site is a New Mexico historical marker in Doña Ana County.

US 70 -- mile marker 153.6 -- Las Cruces vicinity

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Pat Garrett, the Lincoln County Sheriff who shot and killed William “Billy the Kid” Bonney at Fort Stanton in 1881, was himself murdered at a remote site nearby on February 29, 1908. Wayne Brazel, a local cowboy, confessed to shooting Garrett but was acquitted of all charges. The motive and circumstances surrounding Garrett’s death are still being debated.

The Historic Preservation Division notes that its marker spreadsheet may be out of date and in places inaccurate, and that it does not know where every marker now stands. These pages carry the spreadsheet’s record; a marker listed here may have moved or may no longer stand. the program’s page ↗

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection

Historical maps covering this location

1876 · Territory of New Mexico (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1882 · Territory Of New Mexico. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1883 · New Mexico. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1891 · Las Cruces, New Mexico (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)
1893 · Las Cruces, New Mexico (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)

Las Cruces, New Mexico, 1891, covering the location of Pat Garrett Murder Site, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Las Cruces, New Mexico, 1891, covering this location. USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

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What that marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years there.

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The marker isn't at this spotOur pin may be off. If you know where it stands, tell us.I couldn't find the markerWe record what the source recorded. We have not been to look.The sign reads differentlyThat would be an error, and we can pass it to the program.The historical map looks wrongThe period map behind the pin, not the marker itself.Something else

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Marker data: Official Scenic Historic Markers program, New Mexico Historic Preservation Division, Department of Cultural AffairsMarker texts come from the Division’s published marker spreadsheet, reproduced with the Division’s written permission. Where that spreadsheet records a coordinate, the pin is the Division’s own; where it records only a highway and mile marker, an address, a junction or a named place, or where its coordinate contradicts its own highway, mile and county, the pin is ours, resolved on public road and place data and marked approximate.

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