Uniqueness of Authenticity
Photo by Lindsey Venable
The Billy the Kid Museum is successful in marketing itself as authentic and original, but so many small towns offer the same sort of attraction. These attractions can be either a cultural or historical museum like that in Hico, or on the stranger side. To see a collection of interesting tourist spots that compete with Hico’s Billy the Kid Museum, click here. http://www.roadsideamerica.com/location/tx
Since every town is capable of producing the same sort of attractive touristic lure, how can Hico stand out? After all, Dublin, Texas home of the Oldest Dr. Pepper bottling plant in the world is only 20 miles to the northwest. With more and more tourist destinations available to tourists, each location becomes less unique and novel. This is especially true when other towns have similar attractions. In the Southwest, there is no less than five other Billy the Kid museums.“Today, the tiny town of Lincoln, population 38, is a memorial to what happened next. More than a dozen buildings, including one that housed the jail, have been preserved as a state monument that attracts as many as 35,000 visitors a year.”(Janofsky) Also, in Fort Sumner, New Mexico has two museums, each claiming to have Billy’s body buried out back when in reality, the body was washed away in a 1930 flood and the headstones are just replicas. I contacted the owner of the Fort Sumner Billy the Kid Museum and asked if there was a sense of competition between Fort Sumner and Hico. Tim Sweet, one of the owners responded, “Yes there probably is a little competition, but we have so much history in this town that we feel we win hands down. People ask us every day if we have heard of Hico, Brushy Bill and his story but we know that history is on our side. There are descendants of people that knew Billy personally that still live here today.” The people of New Mexico have a more authentic Billy the Kid history, but since the scale of their museums is so small, the existence of one museum does not detract from the other. The towns to some extent rely on the tourism the museums attract. I asked Tim Sweet how important, economically is his museum to Fort Sumner? “I feel it is very important. We have on average about 19,000 people stop at the museum each year. So not only do we benefit from it but so do the other museums here and restaurants, grocery stores, and service stations.”(Sweet)
Since every town is capable of producing the same sort of attractive touristic lure, how can Hico stand out? After all, Dublin, Texas home of the Oldest Dr. Pepper bottling plant in the world is only 20 miles to the northwest. With more and more tourist destinations available to tourists, each location becomes less unique and novel. This is especially true when other towns have similar attractions. In the Southwest, there is no less than five other Billy the Kid museums.“Today, the tiny town of Lincoln, population 38, is a memorial to what happened next. More than a dozen buildings, including one that housed the jail, have been preserved as a state monument that attracts as many as 35,000 visitors a year.”(Janofsky) Also, in Fort Sumner, New Mexico has two museums, each claiming to have Billy’s body buried out back when in reality, the body was washed away in a 1930 flood and the headstones are just replicas. I contacted the owner of the Fort Sumner Billy the Kid Museum and asked if there was a sense of competition between Fort Sumner and Hico. Tim Sweet, one of the owners responded, “Yes there probably is a little competition, but we have so much history in this town that we feel we win hands down. People ask us every day if we have heard of Hico, Brushy Bill and his story but we know that history is on our side. There are descendants of people that knew Billy personally that still live here today.” The people of New Mexico have a more authentic Billy the Kid history, but since the scale of their museums is so small, the existence of one museum does not detract from the other. The towns to some extent rely on the tourism the museums attract. I asked Tim Sweet how important, economically is his museum to Fort Sumner? “I feel it is very important. We have on average about 19,000 people stop at the museum each year. So not only do we benefit from it but so do the other museums here and restaurants, grocery stores, and service stations.”(Sweet)
The Billy the Kid Museum of Fort Sumner
Photo from Billy the Kid Museum of Fort Sumner
At the Billy The Kid Museum in Fort Sumner New Mexico, we firmly believe that he was in fact shot and Killed by Pat Garrett on July 14 1881 in the Maxwell House which was located 1/4 west of Billy the Kid’s grave site.
http://www.billythekidmuseumfortsumner.com/