La Mesilla

A few steps from this panel, Billy the Kid was jailed, tried and sentenced in 1881, in the adobe building on the plaza that served as courthouse and jail until 1882. By then Mesilla, which had grown to some 2,500 residents and become the county seat, was the leading center of trade in the valley. The county seat went to Las Cruces in 1882, and the town kept its plaza. This panel replaced an older green one whose text credited Cura Ramón Ortiz with more than 800 settlers by 1850.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker La Mesilla The 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican-American War, establishing Mesilla as a Mexican holding. Cura Ramon Ortiz settled families from El Paso del Norte and pre- territorial New Mexico here. Disputes over the border just north of town continued. Soldiers raised the U.S. flag on this Plaza, November 16, 1854, marking the signing of the Gadsden Purchase, the last major territorial acquisition within the contiguous United States. The "M" and "54" painted on the nearby bandstand commemorate the event.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Mesilla Plaza — steps away
  A plaza laid out in 1848 by people who meant to stay in Mexico, American six years later, a stage stop and Civil War headquarters, and scene of a deadly political riot in 1871.

More markers nearby

• La Mesilla — 0.2 mi
• María Gutiérrez Spencer — 2.4 mi
• Doña Ana County Courthouse — 2.4 mi
• Rio Grande — 3.1 mi