Capitán

The town carried another name first. Seaborn T. Gray, a first cousin of Pat Garrett who had come west from Texas for his health, homesteaded the townsite and opened a store, and when a post office came in 1894 it was called Gray, with him as postmaster. The El Paso and Northeastern's coal spur from Carrizozo arrived in 1899, and on October 11, 1900, the railroad's choice took over: the town was renamed for the Capitan Mountains behind it. Gray stayed on as a livery keeper, deputy sheriff and county school superintendent.

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 — 0.6 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 — 11 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 — 28 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 — 0.4 mi
• Capitán — 1.1 mi
• Capitán — 2.0 mi
• Fort Stanton — 4.1 mi