How The Buckeye Blake Wake Project Finally Happened

 May 30, 2025

   Perhaps you are curious about how Buckeye Blake's "cryptic" defeat in Old Fort Sumner turned into a win for all of us who love history.

   Here's the backstory.

   After Buckeye struck out with the Chamber folk in Old Fort Sumner, back in 2014, a new Chamber of Commerce president arrived on the scene. 

Daily Whip Out:

"Mexican Mourners for The Kid"

   Her name is Mary Ann Cortese and when she heard about the Buckeye Blake wake concept, she took up the banner and championed it relentlessly. She brought in Mayor Louis Gallegos and the entire city council, who then approached Tim Roberts at the State of New Mexico about collaborating on something that would honor the Kid without opening old controversies. This is a key line on anything involving BtK in New Mexico: "without opening old controversies."

   Good luck with that one! But, I digress. 

   This led to an interpretive exhibit concept floated by Tim Roberts who brought on his brother Billy Roberts along with Scott Smith and the late Drew Gomber to develop the concept. They, in turn contacted me and I worked with Dan The Man Harshberger on creating a courtyard view capturing the moment when the Kid walked across the parade ground, along the picket fence and on the way to his doom.

Daily Whip Out: "The Midnight View"

(A night at the museum)

  This is my sketch of the three walls in the portico of the museum leading to a facsimile of the Maxwell porch and into Pete Maxwell's bedroom.

And here is a video of the room in question:

The Midnight Men

   Three lawmen come in from the south. They have taken the back trails and now they slip silently onto Pete Maxwell's south porch. While one of them goes inside, the two deputies crouch in the gate and spy a lone figure walking towards them in the moonlight. He is buttoning his trousers.

   Dan took these images and pieced together a wall montage that museum goers will walk through on their way to view Buckeye's sculpture. We wanted you to see what the Kid saw on his last walk. Here is our rough of that concept.

Three walls on the way to Maxwell's bedroom

Designed by Dan Harshberger

(this is actually looking back at the door you will enter, which is where the Death Riders are)

 The city then pursued and won grant money to fund the project. Buckeye's sculpture will be unveiled at the Graveside Museum in the spring of 2026.

   In the meantime you will be able to see all of this artwork, including the sculpture, on the Traveling Wake of Billy the Kid Art Show in the following locations (this is a tentative list and more locations may be added):

The Lamy Church, in Lamy, New Mexico, on July 4, 2025. At the Raton Museum on August 23 and at the Scottsdale Museum of the West on October 3rd.

"Be there or be square."

—Old Beatnik Saying