Capitán

The coal the Eddys came for came out of a camp a mile and a half northwest of town called Coalora, which had its own post office. Seaborn Gray had been digging bituminous coal in the field since 1885, from seams two and a half to five and a half feet thick. The railroad bought it for fuel until 1905, longer than the panel's 1901, and then dropped the spur once its line into the Dawson coal field in northeastern New Mexico was finished; after that the mines sold only to local buyers.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Capitán Population 1400 Elevation 6350 Ft. Many incidents in the Lincoln County War, 1876-1879, occurred in the area around Capitán. The promoters Charles B. and John A. Eddy platted the townsite in 1900, after building a spur of the El Paso & Northeastern Railroad from Carrizozo in order to open the Salado coal fields. The mines were abandoned in 1901.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Smokey Bear Historical Park — 0.5 mi
  The small park in Capitan where the living Smokey Bear is buried, a cub found clinging to a burned tree in the Capitan Mountains in 1950, six years after the cartoon was invented.
• Lincoln Historic Site — 12 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.
• Three Rivers Petroglyph Site — 27 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.

More markers nearby

• Smokey Bear Historical Park — 0.7 mi
• Capitán — 1.1 mi
• Capitán — 1.1 mi
• Fort Stanton — 4.7 mi