Denton

Cattle town in southern New Mexico Territory in 1878.[1]

Built on the former site of Fort Fillmore after the land was purchased by rancher Joseph Denton from the U. S. government in 1875. A small town grew up to serve the local ranchers. Although considered in its day to be more repectible and "civilized" than the older and wilder Spanish towns of Las Cruces and Mesilla just to the north, Billy the Kid was known to have visited Denton's famous saloon, One-Eyed Joe's.[1]

Relic of Fort Tejon: In July of 1878,[1] Carl Jimson told the sheriff he was going to Denton to bring a doctor back to Silver Springs to help Donna Seely with her recovery form a gunshot wound in her chest. Bret Maverick realized Jimson was actually fleeing Silver Springs to avoid being identified as Donna's true assailant in a gunfight between Bret and Jimson.[2]

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ABOVE: The site of Denton today, looking north on Snow Road, Las Cruces, New Mexico.[3]

By the 1890s, ranching ultimately gave way to agriculture. Nothing remains today of either Fort Fillmore or the Denton Ranch.[1] Now within the city limits of southern Las Cruces, the site is populated by acres of pecan groves.[4]

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