Black Jack Ketchum and Clayton, NM

We stopped in Clayton, NM to learn about the Black Jack Ketchum saga. It seems that Mr. Ketchum and his gang was fond of robbing trains in the late 1800's and he was captured by a posse and jailed in Clayton, NM. A trial was held and he was found guilty of the offenses and sentenced to hang.

Now, nobody in Clayton had ever hung someone and were not sure how to accomplish this in accordance with the proper custom so they contacted the people in the Capitol of NM to obtain the rules, methods, etc. They were given all the particulars including how high to build the scaffold, the type of rope to use, how to test the rope to ensure it would do the job, etc. Well they built the scaffold, bought the rope from the local hardware store, went to the scaffold the day prior to the hanging and tied a bag of sand to the rope and dropped it. The rope held! They then learned that the measurements for the scaffold were wrong and they needed to dig a pit under it to gain the proper drop distance. That accomplished they retired for the night leaving the sand hanging from the rope. (The sand hanging from the rope strecthed the rope out entirely so that there was no give to it at all which proved to be a problem later!)

The morning of the hanging arrived and people from far and wide came by to witness the deed. Poor old Black Jack was taken from his cell and marched to the top of the scaffold. The rope was placed upon him and they dropped the door under him whereapon he dropped, the rope reached its end and cleanly snapped his head off at the shoulders making a mess of the entire hanging. Since that time all hangings in New Mexico were held at Sante Fe!

We found Clayton, NM to be a delightful town. Very wide streets, lots of historical buildings still in use including the hotel downtown with a wonderful bar that still is in use. Most of this area was settled around the early 1900's when there were a few rainy years. Later normal moisture returned and it caused many to leave.


In the museum in Clayton, found many wonderful exhibits including this inlaid game table made in Italy. It has hidden talents that were displayed by the curator of the museum.






By turning the top over you have backgammon board!





















Removing the backgammon board reveals the chess or checker board!

In the next post I will show more of this table.