Hoover Dam by Floodlight

AUTHOR OF "BILLY THE KID"; "LISTEN, BRIGHT ANGEL"; "THE GILA: RIVER OF THE SOUTHWEST"; "THE ROYAL HIGHWAY"; "DESERT COUNTRY"; AND OTHER VOLUMES TREATING OF THE WEST

DRAWINGS BY ROSS SANTEE

and Indians." His life's story is unique in the history of the West.

Because of the national notoriety gained by Billy the Kid's deeds, numerous accounts of his life began to appear in print shortly after his death. Most were erroneous, or deliberately romanticized dime novels, and Garrett decided that the truth should be told. He therefore wrote a book that was published in Santa Fe in 1882, the full title of which is The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid, the Noted Desperado of the Southwest, Whose Deeds of Daring and Blood Have Made His Name a Terror in New Mexico, Arizona Northern Mexico, and to this is appended "a faithful, interesting narrative."

Since Garrett knew the Kid personally, even intimately, from his eighteenth year to his death, there is no gainsaying the "faithful" and "interesting" commentary on the part of the book's publisher, and the book is the cornerstone upon which a whole superstructure of Billy the Kid literature has been built.

Garrett, however, did not know Billy during the Kid's early days, and most of his information about Billy's activities in Arizona stem from a man by the name of Marshall Ashmum Upson. This man, known generally as "Ash" Upson, was a newspaper writer and editor and, coincidentally enough, boarded with Billy's mother in Silver City before Billy hit the outlaw trail, and was living in Garrett's house at the time Garrett killed the Kid. Thus, between the two of them, Garrett and Upson were able to supply as clear a picture of the Kid's life as could conceivably be put togeth-er. It is generally believed that the first part of Garrett's book is largely Upson's writing based upon his own knowledge, and that the latter half is Upson's editing of Garrett's Incontestable facts couched in Garrett's simple and honest style. This invaluable insight to the life of Billy the Kid was reissued in 1927 with an introduction and notes by Maurice Garland Fulton. Major Fulton's careful researchadds greatly to the book's informative value.

Upson was able to report only from hearsay about Billy's life in Arizona, but he is certain that the Kid first entered the territory sometime in 1872. Just when he left is a matterof conjecture, but it is reasonable to say that Billy spent at least one year, and possibly two, in and around Fort Grant, Fort Bowie (then Camp Bowie), San Simon, Apache Pass,and settlements and ranches along the Gila and San Pedro rivers. That he visited Tucson and dealt monte there must beaccepted as highly probable. And that his final departure from Arizona led him into Mexico is a logical assumption, and his route surely followed either the Santa Cruz Valley through Tubac and Tumacacori into Sonora by way of Nogales Pass where stands the border city of Nogales today,