Museums

Outdoor activities: Roswell is surrounded by natural beauty. Bottomless Lakes State Park and Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge are nearby and far from ordinary. Shopping in Roswell: Roswell is home to some of the most eclectic shopping experiences this side of the...

Everything you ever wanted to know about Lincoln County’s most famous bear. Kids love the place. There’s a full-size talking Smokey and a small theater where a short documentary plays about the bear cub found in a 17,000-acre forest fire in the nearby Capitan...

This National Historic Site is considered by many historians to be the most authentic old west town remaining in the United States. Center of the bloody Lincoln County War, the little hamlet was launched into the history books by a host of famous characters including Billy...

A restored 1800s family home from the gold-boom era. Photos, drawings, self-guided tour. The nearby cemetery is the resting spot for the first governor of New Mexico, Susan McSween Barber and deputy J.W. Bell, killed by Billy the Kid when he escaped from the Lincoln County...

If you’re looking for a stuffed Smokey, this is the place. In a small one-room log cabin on the other side of the historical park is a collection of (not for sale) items that feature Smokey’s image, as well as shelves full of for-sale items like t-shirts and Smokey Beanie...

Once the second-largest city in the state, White Oaks is just a ghost of what it was before residents tried to charge the railroad for right-of-way (and lost) and the gold mines petered out. One of the surviving gems is the finest example of an eastern-influenced, brick...

Tour Old Lincoln, New Mexico...the best-preserved town in the Old West...plus tours of Fort Stanton and other sites important to Western History. Jack Shuster is degreed in History with a field of interest in Social and Cultural History of the American People. A Living...

The Fort Stanton Historic Site is a must-see attraction when visiting Lincoln County.  Nestled on Highway 220 that bisects the Billy the Kid Scenic Byway, New Mexico’s newest historic site features over 155 years of southwestern history ranging from its initial...

A division of the Hubbard Museum of the American West in Ruidoso Downs, the Anderson-Freeman is the best curated of all rural Lincoln County museums. There are extensive exhibits here documenting the Lincoln County War (depicted in the movie 'Young Guns,' among others) and a...

The focus of this fledgling museum is the community’s past as a railroad boom-town. One exhibit features a typical one-room school with a window overlooking a since-demolished county seat building. A new model railroad exhibit is a kid-pleaser. Hours: March to...

A landmark 514-seat world-class theater which, on the average, hosts a major touring Broadway show, dance or musical performance every 11 days year-round during separate summer and winter seasons. Four major Dale Chihuly glass installations. Check the Spencer site for coming...

In far north Lincoln County the 10-year old Corona Museum shares space in an old hotel with a new lending library. The museum features heirlooms and antiques from local families dating from the late 1800s and early 1900s (including a moonshine still found on a local ranch)....