User:Spirit of Eagle/Bonito City Draft
Bonito City is a ghost town in Lincoln, New Mexico.
Early history
[edit]Bonito City originated as a mining tent town within the Bonito Canyon during the 1870s; by 1882 more permanent log cabins had started to emerge.[1] Over the next several years, additional buildings and services opened in Bonito City including a school, multiple general stores, a post office, a blacksmith, a lawyer, and a two story boarding-house owned and operated by Mr. and Mrs. W. F. "John" Mayberry.[1][2]
Mayberry hotel shooting
[edit]A mass shooting occurred during the early morning of May 5, 1885, when Martin Nelson (a laborer who lived in Bonito City) entered the Mayberry hotel armed with a rifle.[1] He fatally shot Mr. Mayberry and his two sons within the hotel; a guest was also killed in the initial shooting.[1] Mrs. Mayberry was injured within the hotel and was killed outside after attempting to escape; the town saloon owner and grocer were then killed when they attempted to intervene and investigate, respectively.[1] The attack ended after Nelson was shot to death by Charles Berry (who was possibly a justice of the peace).[1][2]
In the aftermath of the shooting, most of the victims were buried in the town cemetery; the body of the hotel guest was embalmed and returned to his hometown.[1] Nelson was buried outside of
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g Stallings, Dianne L. (12 August 2019). "Bonito City Multiple Murders, a Grisly Tale of Violence". Ruidoso News. Archived from the original on 23 January 2020. Retrieved 23 January 2020.
{{cite web}}:|archive-date=/|archive-url=timestamp mismatch; 1 December 2019 suggested (help) - ^ a b Sherman & Sherman, p. 20.
Bibliography
[edit]- Sherman, James; Sherman, Barbara (1979). Ghost Towns and Mining Camps of New Mexico. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-1106-2. Retrieved 23 January 2020.