Shakespeare, New Mexico

I visited Shakespeare ghost town, just outside of Lordsburg, New Mexico. As luck would have it- not only were they giving tours today but this was one of the four times each year they perform reenactments.

Silver was discovered in 1870 and the town of Ralston City, Shakespeare's original name, sprung up overnight. The population rose and fell along with the fortune of the mines. It was a rough town with no real law- just the effective and often brutal substitute of vigilante justice. Billy The Kid lived here before he became an infamous outlaw. It's said that he worked in the Stratford hotel kitchen washing dishes. Other outlaws like John Ringo, Curley Bill Brocius, The Clantons, Russian Bill, Jim Hughes and Sandy King walked these streets.



The hanging room

There aren't any trees tall enough to hang anyone so they used these beams in the front room of the stage office.

Russian Bill was accused of cheating a miner out of $12,000 dollars. That was a fortune back then and they often hung men for smaller offenses. He stole a horse and tried to make a run for it but they eventually caught him sleeping in a railroad boxcar, tied him to the horse and brought him back to town.

The vigilante posse was working themselves into a fine mood for a hanging and decided to take care of Sandy King as well. Now, Sandy hadn't done any one thing that justified a hanging. He was a rough character, a hard drinking troublemaker with a quick temper and quicker fists, and strongly disliked by everyone in town. They were just waiting for a good enough excuse to string him up and the circumstances seemed fit for it. A couple days earlier Sandy had gone into the general store to buy a lace hankerchief. This wasn't the usual thing for a tough cowboy to carry so we can safely guess Sandy was sweet on some girl and had gone to buy it as a present. The store clerk saw some humor in the situation and unwisely teased Sandy about it. When he handed the merchandise over Sandy grabbed him by the wrist, drew his pistol and shot off the clerk's finger to teach him a lesson. The clerk was well-liked in town so this event was the proverbial law straw for Sandy.

The vigilantes hung Russian Bill and Sandy together in the front room of the stage office and left them overnight. The next morning the stage came in and the passengers were greeted by the site of two dead men strung up from the ceiling. The stage manager explained that he couldn't get them down by himself and asked if any of the passengers would kindly volunteer to help. After a little hesitation two of the passengers helped bring them down, the tables were moved back and breakfast was served. One of the passengers was curious as to who the men were and what they had done. The stage manager tried to avoid his nosy questions, as he didn't want to implicate any of the vigilante posse, but the man was persistent. Finally he answered him, "Well, Russian Bill here, he stole a horse, and Sandy King, he was just a damned nuisance."

A few months later the postmaster of Shakespeare received a letter from Russia. It was Russian Bill's mother. She was worried as she hadn't heard from her son in a long time. She wrote to the postmaster to try and find out where he had gone and if he was ok. The postmaster didn't want to tell her the truth about Russian Bill's fate but he didn't want to tell an outright lie either. He replied, "Dear Madam, I am sorry to report your son has died of throat trouble."



Rope tricks



Gunfights!

The Paso Del Norte Pistoleros showed us reenactments of several exciting gunfights.



Friends of Fort Selden

The Friends of Fort Selden put on an impressive demonstration of cannon operation and firing with a working replica of a Civil War cannon.

It is loud! Soldiers operating the cannon stuffed cotton in their ears to mute the sound but I doubt it did much good.

Ideally, the cannon was fired by two crews of four men each who would rotate to relieve each other. In practice, the average life expectancy for a soldier manning a cannon was just 37 minutes so by the time that battle was over they were often down to the minimum three-man crew.

Firing the cannon involves several steps:

1. Run the wet sponge through the barrel to douse any burning embers. If anything is still burning from the previous firing it could spontaneously ignite the power charge killing the soldier who loads it.

2. Run the dry sponge through the cannon to remove any dampness that might ruin the power.

3. Push the powder charge down the barrel. This is a prepackaged charge of gunpowder wrapped in cotton. A charge could also contain the payload (often Minnie balls or small scrap iron.)

4. Insert the cannon ball or payload (only if the charge package contains no payload.)

5. Poke a stilleto through the priming hole to puncture the charge package and expose the gunpower.

6. Insert the primer.

7. Ingite the primer, fire the cannon.

8. Go back to step one.

In battle, the enemy's first goal is to get close enough to the cannon to kill the crew with rifle fire. I could imagine what must have going through the minds of the crew as the fighting began. Fire as fast as possible to keep them out of range! Their lives depended on it. This cannon had a range of 1,000 yards, longer than any rifle at the beginning of the Civil War, and an experienced crew could fire as rapidly as three rounds per minute.

As the enemy closes in the crew becomes desperate and respect for the proper rules of firing and safety precautions goes out the window. The emergency method went like this:

1. The firing officer would cover the priming hole with his thumb (a leather fob kept it from burning him.) The purpose of this step is to keep the cannon from igniting the charge. You're firing every twenty seconds and the metal is becoming red-hot. If any air gets in the cannon it will spontaneously fire.

2. Immediately ram down the charge package down the barrel with your hand. It could ignite and blow your arm off but you have no choice. The enemy is within shooting range and has already killed some or most of the crew so fire as quick as possible and try to drive them back. If possible, choose charges which contain a payload to avoid the time the next step requires.

3. Load the cannon ball or other payload if required.

4. Release the thumb from the priming hole. Air rushes in and the heat causes the gunpower to ignite and the cannon to fire.

5. Go back to step 1, quickly!

They didn't have training school for the cannon crew in those days. If you were a new recruit assigned to a cannon crew the gunnery sergeant would tell you where to stand and what to do. The rest comes from experience. Assuming you live long enough, that is.

The charge packets today have been modernized a bit. Gunpowder is stored in a zip-lock bag to keep it dry and the entire package is wrapped with tin foil to protect it from left over burning debris. Other than that it's just as it was, and every bit as eardrum-bursting loud, as 150 years ago.

The Friends of Fort Selden are preserving a bit of history and knowledge from the Civil War that would otherwise be forgotten. I learned so much and I wish I could have stayed in Shakespeare longer but it was time to get going.

I met Ryan Major for lunch today. He is a budding motorcycling and traveling enthusiast. Ryan has a Kawasaki KLR and is thinking seriously about riding through South America. He has the advantage of speaking Spanish, he's got the right bike, and no shortage of enthusiasm. It was good to meet him. I wished him luck and shared some tips on outfitting and maintaining the KLR. Maybe I'll see him in South America some day.