Blazer's Mill

The fight was on April 4, 1878; the panel's April 5 is the day Roberts died. The mill belonged to Dr. Joseph Blazer, a dentist, and stood on the Mescalero reservation. Thirteen Regulators were eating there when Roberts rode in on a mule. Shot through the body early, he held a room with a single-shot Springfield and killed Brewer with a long shot from the doorway. One coffin was made for the two men, and they lie side by side in the small Blazer cemetery. His nickname may come from a 1905 novel.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Blazer's Mill An early fight in the Lincoln County War occured near this sawmill on April 5, 1878, when several men of the McSween faction, including Dick Brewer and Billy the Kid, attempted to arrest Buckshot Roberts. Roberts and Brewer were killed, and two others wounded, in the battle that followed.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Three Rivers Petroglyph Site — 16 mi
  More than 21,000 petroglyphs on a basalt ridge above the Tularosa Basin, one of the few places in the Southwest set aside for its rock art alone, walked on a rough half-mile trail.
• Lincoln Historic Site — 35 mi
  One street of adobe in the Bonito valley kept much as it was in the 1870s, where the Lincoln County War was fought over who would supply Fort Stanton and the Mescalero agency.

More markers nearby

• Round Mountain — 3.1 mi
• Sierra Blanca — 10 mi
• Lozen, Little Sister — 12 mi
• Tularosa — 13 mi