The Dona Ana Historical Society and Tularosa Basin Historical Society groups before entering the Missile Range to visit the area of the Fountain murder.

     

Marker text:   "Albert Jennings Fountain was a Civil War Veteran, New Mexico legislator and prominent lawyer. Colonel Fountain and his young son were presumed murdered near this spot while traveling between Lincoln and Las Cruces on February 1, 1896. Their bodies have never been found. Oliver Lee and James Gilliland were tried for their murder in 1898. Both were acquitted."
     

At Chalk Hill on WSMR, Leon Metz, author of Pat Garrett - Story of a Western Lawman, describes the events of the discovery of the Fountain wagon and other evidence, and his efforts to discover information about where the the bodies of the two were hidden.

     

Attentive listeners imagining what the area looked like at the time of the 1896 murders as Metz describes them.

Site of the Garrett ranch, purchased in 1899, just east of St Augustine Pass. From his home here in the San Andres Mountains, he told his family good-bye and started into town on the trip that led to his death.

     


Patsy Garrett McCan, granddaughter of the lawman, telling about her grandfather's family.

     


Nothing remains of the house and corrals. In years past there was evidence of the small house but even that's gone now.
     

Rob Cox, current owner of the Cox Ranch, recounted the story of Pat Garrett and a deputy arriving at the ranch headquarters and gunning down a suspect.
   



Cox's account included two slugs taken from the kitchen wall after the incident.

Bentley's store in Organ, site of the quarrel that took place between Pat Garrett and Wayne Brazel on February 29, 1908 as they met with Carl Adamson, prospective buyer of Garrett's ranch. After they left the store, on the way to Las Cruces, Pat Garrett was shot and killed.

   



Patsy Garrett McCan and friend at Bentley's store

   



Leon Metz recounting the day of February 29, 1908 when Garrett and Brazel quarrelled at the store.

              

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       Mary Lou and Pat Pendergrass    March 2001