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On Saturday, Dr. Richard Melzer captivated a full house at the Magdalena Public Library with his presentation. As the author of “Buried Treasures: Famous and Unusual Gravesites of New Mexico History,” he brought to life the intriguing stories behind some of the state’s most remarkable and lesser-known gravesites.
The retired professor of history from the University of New Mexico Valencia Campus has visited over 100 public and private cemeteries in New Mexico.
“I’ve been closer to more famous New Mexicans than any other person. Unfortunately, they are all dead,” Melzer said.
He said cemeteries offer insights into a local community’s history, such as identifying flu epidemics from grave markers, the ethnic composition of the population, wars, accidents and the socioeconomic status of families.
“You can learn a lot about genealogy, finding your relatives; you can also find out a lot about the poverty or affluence,” Melzer said.
He said cemeteries can show cultural traditions and values, as seen in the personalization of grave sites and the use of specific symbols and messages. He showed photos to the audience of sometimes bizarre and strange sites, such as one with a locked door on the ground where the deceased was buried. He also shared photos of the tragic burial sites, such as the mass burial of children and victims of mining accidents.
“The most famous in New Mexico is Billy the Kid’s” Melzer said as he showed a photo from the 1950s, “They’ve got this chain link fence around it, it’s kind of skimpy, don’t you think? Because they had a problem with that stone you can see on the left hand side; people are chipping away at it,”
Melzer said the headstone in Fort Sumner, originally protected by the skimpy fence, was eventually replaced by a metal cage after Billy’s headstone was stolen not once but twice.
“One time it was found in California, the other time in Texas. But it was recovered. They sent out sheriffs to recover them. So there he is, and you can see it’s got the bars around it,” Melzer said.
He joked that although they were never able to catch Billy in life, in death, he was essentially locked up in a jail complete with a padlock.
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If Billy was the most famous person in New Mexico, then Kit Carson was the most infamous. Melzer said Carson’s headstone, located in Taos, is the most vandalized in New Mexico. He showed a photo of Kit Carson’s tombstone with a swastika drawn on it.
He shared stories about the gravesites of Socorro’s Elfego Baca, Pat Garrett, Brushy Bill Roberts, Ernie Pyle, D.H. Lawrence, Clyde Tingley, Daniel Fernandez, and the widely unknown first Hispanic woman governor, Soledad Chavez de Chacon.
He said Chacon was the New Mexico secretary of state, but when the governor died in 1924, she served as the first Hispanic woman governor for two weeks.
He recounted the tale of Black Jack, the train robber who was hanged in Clayton. His famous last words were, “Hurry up, boys; I don’t want to be late for lunch in hell.”
He said in Clayton, because they lacked experience building gallows, they miscalculated the weight attached to his legs, and he was accidentally decapitated.
He wrapped up his presentation with a plea to respect gravesites. He said he thinks of them like museums and believes they should be treated as such.
Melzer is a former president of the Historical Society of New Mexico and author and coauthor of numerous books, including Ernie Pyle in the American Southwest, Captain Maximiliano Luna: A New Mexico Rough Rider and A History of New Mexico Since Statehood. He has published articles in New Mexico Magazine, New Mexico Historical Society, El Palacio and other publications. He was recognized as Teacher of the Year by the University of New Mexico.
