History will come alive in Hillsboro when the Friends of Pat Garrett, a Las Cruces-based organization dedicated to preserving Southern New Mexico’s history, present an afternoon of music and drama.
The event kicks off with a performance by Dan Crow and Karla Steen. Sing the Legend will feature original western songs capturing the spirit of the Wild West.
A dramatic reenactment of the Colonel Albert J. Fountain Murder Trial follows, recounting the criminal trial of the individual accused of murdering Colonel Albert J. Fountain and his eight-year-old son, Henry.
The Feb. 1, 1896 abduction and suspected murder of Fountain and his young son shocked and outraged the people of New Mexico.
The murder trial took place in the Sierra County Courthouse in Hillsboro. It lasted three weeks and involved some of the most prominent figures in New Mexico history. The trial was presided over by Judge Frank W. Parker, who would later become Chief Justice of the New Mexico Supreme Court. Among the prosecution lawyers was Thomas Catron, and one of the defense lawyers was Albert Bacon Fall—both of whom would be appointed as New Mexico’s first Senators. Fall later became Secretary of the Interior and, after the Teapot Dome Scandal in the 1920s, was the first U.S. cabinet member to be sent to prison. Sheriff Pat Garrett also testified as a witness for the prosecution.
In this reenactment, the defendant is rancher Oliver Lee, who would go on to serve as a state senator. His former home at Dog Canyon is now the Oliver Lee Memorial State Park near Alamogordo.
