Carrizozo

Water for the railroad came out of the mountains in a wooden pipe. The El Paso and Southwestern laid a wood-stave pipeline, joined with steel, fifty-three miles from the south fork of Bonito Creek to Coyote, later extended to Pastura, and in its day it was the longest railroad water line in New Mexico. Bonito Lake stored the supply; the rancher Skinner sold the lake to the railroad on condition that it keep his stock and household watered. Most of the old pipe has since rotted away or disappeared.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Carrizozo Population 1,222 - Elevation 5,438 Carrizozo, county seat of Lincoln County, was established in 1899, a new town on the El Paso and Northeastern Railroad. The ghost town of White Oaks, once a boom- ing mining camp, is nearby. Billy the Kid, Sheriff Pat Garrett, Gov- ernor Lew Wallace, and Albert Bacon Fall all figured prominently in the history of the area.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Smokey Bear Historical Park — 18 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.
• Three Rivers Petroglyph Site — 22 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

• Carrizozo — 0.6 mi
• Carrizozo Woman's Club — 0.9 mi
• Carrizozo — 1.0 mi
• Carrizozo — 1.4 mi