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Elizabethtown is a ghost town in northern New Mexico. It’s located along the Enchanted Circle Scenic Byway in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
Visiting
Very little is left of Elizabethtown, as only seven of the original buildings still stand. The land the town stood on is owned by descendants of the Mutz family, who were once prominent residents.
A sign indicates the Elizabethtown Museum is open from 10am to 5pm. It contains old photos and artifacts found on the site. Unfortunately, when we drove up we saw someone run and close the door. To be fair, there was a sign in front of the museum that said “SHUT”.
When this happened, we decided to take a quick walk around the ruins. There really wasn’t much to see at all, and there were plenty of broken own old trucks strewn about. I’ll mix in some of the photos we took with a short history of the town written below.
History
Elizabethtown began as a gold mining camp in 1866. It was founded shortly after by the commander of Fort Union, Captain William H. Moore, who named it after his daughter, Elizabeth Catherine Moore.
Nicknamed E-Town, it was the first incorporated town in New Mexico and was the seat of Colfax County. Several stores started popping up, including saloons, brothels, and gambling halls famous in other Wild West towns.
At its peak in 1870, the town had 7,000 residents. That dwindled to just over 100 two years later as most of the mining dried up. The county seat moved to Cimarron, and Elizabethtown started its first run as a ghost town in 1875.
The town was reborn in 1878 when the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad passed nearby. Schools opened and many social and sporting events took place, attracting people from several miles away. In the late 19th century, outlaw Tom “Black Jack” Ketchum (1863-1901) and members of the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang would often hang out in Elizabethtown.
Most of Elizabethtown burned down in a fire in 1903, and by 1917, it was a ghost town as the last mining activity stopped. By then most of the residents had moved down to Therma (now Eagle Nest) or Cimarron.
Charles Kennedy
Elizabethtown is notorious for housing one of America’s first serial killers. Charles Kennedy would lure travelers to his rest stop for food and shelter, and they were never heard from again. It’s believed he killed up to 14 people.
His wife escaped and burst into a saloon where cattle rancher and gunslinger Clay Allison (1841-1887) was having a drink. She told the stories of Kennedy’s suspected murders, and he was taken into custody and given a pre-trial on October 3, 1870.
Allison put together a group of vigilantes and took Kennedy out of jail. They threw a rope around his neck and dragged him by horse through the streets until he was dead. Legend has it that Allison chopped off Kennedy’s head and put it on a stake in front of the saloon in Elizabethtown.
