San Patricio

The renowned artist was Peter Hurd, born in Roswell, who had studied under the illustrator N. C. Wyeth and married Wyeth's eldest daughter, Henriette, a painter herself. In 1934 the couple bought forty acres here, which grew into the 2,200-acre Sentinel Ranch, and Hurd spent the rest of his life painting the Hondo Valley and his neighbors, among them the ranch foreman in Portrait of Jose. Lyndon Johnson rejected his official portrait, calling it the ugliest thing he had ever seen. The Hurd-La Rinconada Gallery shows the family's work.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker San Patricio This farming and ranching community was the scene of many events associated with the Lincoln County War. In July 1878, a posse ransacked the village while looking for William "Billy the Kid" Bonney and others of the faction known as the "Regulators" who frequently visited the town or had hiding places in the vicinity. More recently, renowend artist Peter Hurd made his home here.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lincoln Historic Site — 6.7 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.
• Smokey Bear Historical Park — 17 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.

More markers nearby

• Lincoln — 6.2 mi
• Lincoln — 7.0 mi
• John H. Tunstall — 7.3 mi
• Raton Ranch — 10 mi