If you are a fan of the wild west and love day trips, you are totally in the right place.

El Paso is practically the heart of the old west. In and around us are the stomping grounds of some of the biggest names in outlaw history. Good guys and bad guys fought it out and shot it out all over the Southwest and many of those sites still stand today.

Here are a couple of easy day trips which will take you not too terribly far back in time to when the wild west was exactly that..

  • Let’s start here in El Chuco where gunslingers from both Mexico and the United States battled it out almost constantly. A quick stroll throughout Downtown will bring you to several historic sites including the former Wigwam Saloon, the corner of San Antonio and Mesa where the Acme Saloon was once located, (site of John Wesley Hardin's execution), along with El Paso Street which was the setting for the infamous 4 Dead in 5 shootout between Constable Dallas Stoudemire and, well, anybody handy.
  • From El Paso's upper valley, follow Highway 28 about 30 miles or so to Old Mesilla. Once a stopping point on the Butterfield Trail, all kinds of people visited what is now the La Posta restaurant on their way into the history books including Kit Carson, Wyatt Earp and Billy The Kid. Billy was once brought there for trial. He was sentenced to be hung in the building that now houses the gift shop but he escaped before they could string him up.
  • Next up, take I-10 toward Lordsburg then head about 3 miles south to Shakespeare, NM. An honest to goodness ghost town that still stands, offering among other things, a glimpse into the areas rich mining history.

There are several other places to go in the immediate area like the jail Billy The Kid once broke a friend out of near San Elizario and multiple sites in Silver City and the Ruidoso/Cloudcroft area. Go a couple of hours farther west into Arizona and and you’ll find many more including the wild west’s most legendary town; Tombstone. I’ll tell you more about those and others here soon. Right now the weather is perfect for getting out and about so, saddle up ‘pardners and hit the trail.

PS: There’s a bonus for ghost hunters as ALL these places are reportedly haunted AF.

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