Capitan Mountains

A bear in ranger pants and a campaign hat pouring a bucket of water on a campfire under the line, Smokey says, care will prevent 9 out of 10 forest fires.

For six years, Smokey was only a drawing, but that changed in May of 1950 when two fires broke out in the Captain Mountains of New Mexico's Lincoln National Forest.

The first, the Los Tablos fires, burned about 1,000 acres before crews contained it.

Two days later, on May 6, the Captain Gap fire ignited nearby and, pushed by winds up to 70 miles an hour, grew fast enough that around 30 firefighters, including members of the Taos Pueblos volunteer crew, had to lie face down on a rock slide for over an hour while the fire burned past them.

At the Bosc Grande on the Pecos River the three Derrick boys, Sam, Dan and Mose, owned a ranch which became quite a rendezvous for the Kid's and Tom Cooper's gangs.

From here the herds of stolen Panhandle Texas cattle were started across the waterless desert to the foot of the Capitan Mountains, a distance of about one hundred miles.

Here Dave Rudabaugh, who had the previous fall killed the jailer in Las Vegas in trying to liberate his friend Webb, joined Billy the Kid's gang.

Also Billy Wilson and Tom Pickett joined the party and their time was spent stealing cattle and horses.