Billy the Kid—Treasure Hunter?
Mike Smith
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No one man has captured the fascination of so many New Mexicans as Billy the Kid. Although he’s been dead for well over a hundred years his life is still fiercely debated and tall tales still abound about how the Kid supposedly killed a man for each year of his life and how he once left two of his guns in the fork of an oak tree that has since grown with them in its center. The most popular tales about the Kid, however, are the ones that insist that he wasn’t killed on the night of July 14, 1881, in Fort Sumner by Pat Garrett.
Various stories have the Kid escaping death in different ways. One says Pat Garrett shot the wrong man mistaking him for Billy, another says Garret gave the Kid money and told him to leave the state and never come back, and another even goes that Garrett did shoot the Kid but he later revived while being prepared for burial. These stories would only be stories if not for the fact that over the years several men surfaced claiming to be Billy after he was dead.
The two most prominent claimants to the boy bandit king’s throne were O.L. “Brushy Bill” Roberts of Hico, TX, and John Miller of Ramah, NM. Roberts received a good deal of fame in 1948 and even had a public meeting with the governor of New Mexico, Thomas J. Mabry. Although Roberts and Miller get the lion’s share of attention there is also a third Billy the Kid candidate that died in 1937 in Lordsburg, NM. That man was Henry “Walk-along” Smith.
The story of Walk-along Smith is a strange one, as Smith was a mystery in himself. Walk-along Smith was a wanderer traveling New Mexico who walked everywhere he went. Smith would often stay at secluded ranches where he would earn his keep by teaching the rancher’s children reading and writing before he would suddenly and mysteriously disappear. Smith never stayed in one place for long, although many people knew him or knew of him.
The only things Smith carried with him on his long journeys were a few books, some pencils, and a weather-beaten writing tablet. Smith was also frequently seen browsing through the archives of the governor’s palace in Santa Fe and was said to occasionally make money by giving music lessons.
When Smith was found dead outside of Lordsburg, NM, the truth to this enigmatic figure was finally “revealed” by the ranchers that had known him best. Walk-along Henry Smith had really been Billy the Kid.
According to the ranchers back during the days in the aftermath of the Lincoln County War Billy the Kid had captured the sympathy of Governor Lew Wallace. During a secret meeting Pat Garrett and Governor Wallace had decided that the Kid was innocent for his crimes committed during the war and that he had only killed in vengeance and self defense. Governor Wallace was still powerless to protect the Kid from the mighty Santa Fe Ring, a corrupt group of businessmen and lawyers that secretly ruled New Mexico that wanted the Kid dead. So it was decided a shootout would be staged in Ft. Sumner to fake the Kid’s death, at which point two bags of sand would be buried in an empty coffin and the Kid sent off to a prestigious university in secrecy.
If the story is true the Kid returned to New Mexico twenty years later at the turn of the new century under the guise of Walk-along Smith.
But there’s more.
As if Smith’s secret identity wasn’t fantastic enough he was also a treasure hunter searching for the Lost Adams 
Diggings, and if Billy the Kid is New Mexico’s most famous outlaw, then the Lost Adams Diggings is surely its most famous treasure. The Lost Adam’s Diggings, which forms an epic tale unto itself, was a lost valley of gold found years ago by a man known only as Adams. Adams and his party where lead to the canyon by a Mexican Indian named Gotch Ear. Upon arriving Adams and his fellow prospectors found the richest gold placer they had ever seen but only Adams would live to tell about it. All of the men but Adams were killed by a group of Apache Indians who had warned the men not to go further into their territory. Adams spent the rest of his life trying to find his way back to the enchanted canyon.
Walk-along Smith wandered New Mexico collecting every bit of information he could find on the lost gold. More specifically though, Smith was making a thorough list of all the men that had been killed in search of it. If Smith ever did find the gold, people said he was doing it for the good of the state and would deliver the wealth from the gold to charity.
Smith never found the gold but he did collect an awful lot of information on it. Renowned folklorist J. Frank Dobie found some of Smith’s findings interesting enough to include in his book Apache Gold and Yaqui Silver, a sizable portion which contains several chapters on the Lost Adams Diggings.
While Smith was in fact a searcher for the Lost Adams Diggings, the chances of him actually being a reformed Billy the Kid are slim. Though it’s true the two men did share a few similarities, such as a penchant for music and dance as well as befriending and staying at the homes of ranchers, Smith was said to never touch a gun, not even to kill a rattlesnake. Of course some say this is because Smith had let go of his wild gun fighting days to lead a more serene gentle life.
More likely than not ranchers just decided to take advantage of the enigmatic figure of Smith and claim him to be the thought dead Billy the Kid once he died. Their story could have also been inspired by the fact that John Miller, the “other Billy the Kid,” died in November of that same year possibly before Smith’s death, which J. Frank Dobie only says occurred “late in 1937.”
Bob Boze Bell, editor of True West magazine, whose aunt was given Violin lessons by Smith, says in his book The Illustrated Life and Times of Billy the Kid that a photo of Smith was sent to the LCHT (Lincoln County Heritage Trust) for analysis but the results have not yet been forthcoming.
Whatever the case any story that can combine Billy the Kid, the Lost Adams Diggings, an elaborate 1881 government conspiracy, and the already strange town of Lordsburg, is certainly an interesting one. And it could surely only happen in New Mexico….
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Reader Comments (10)
Stories circulated that when Billy the Kid was buried in Ft. Sumner thieves wanted to dig up the body and cut off his trigger finger. Another rumor even goes that someone stole Billy's skull. Perhaps this is why Smith wished his body never to be found.
Besides no one knows exactly where he really is buried or if it was even really him that was shot and buried at Ft. Sumner.
Thanks for stopping by and your insights are always welcome here.
Walk-along died in late 1937 near the Big Burro Mountains northeast of Lordsburg. The cause of death is not neccessarily listed by either J. Frank Dobie or Jack Kutz in their books Apache Gold and Yaqui Silver (by Dobie) and Mysteries and Miracles of New Mexico (by Kutz). The likely explanation would be he wandered too long and died of exhaustion. He was found between a road and a mountain (people speculate he was crawling to the mountain to die).
You said you heard Smith was planning to donote money to Mexican school children? Could you possibly elaborate on that? I would absolutely love to hear anything you know about (or have just heard in general) Smith not listed in the column above.
Thanks!
i'm really not that familar with billy the kid...i've been to lincoln though. my brother is always talking about the "lost adams digging." he would love to read this...i'll send it over to him...
i do know many people think that billy the kid was alive or the smith character...anything is possible so who knows?
mark
There is also a "lost" side to this story. The one passed down, by word of mouth, from the discredited Mexican Americans of that era. And they probably knew him better than most Anglos did. By the time The Kid died (if he even died as reported) he is said to have been living, speaking, and dressing as a Mexican! I would like to hear their side of the story. There is probably a lot more truth in their grandparent's old stories, than in the more popular Anglo version of it.
And yes, Meggan, from what I understand, the story of how chivalrously women in poverty were treated in those times, is just as inaccurate as most other "Legends Of The West" made popular by the media.
John, here is a strange story for you to delve into; Silver City, New Mexico's Madam Millie. To this day decent, respectable, rich folks glorify her as a paragon of loving kindness, and responsibility to her "soiled doves". There is even an annual June event in Silver City, NM honoring her. But Hispanic residents will you tell a darker side to the story of Millie "the child molesting, baby defiling Pimp". They will tell you that the only reason she treated her charges for the diseases (that her high paying clients gave them, in the first place) was profit. It was good for business - pure and simple. But then, the innocent, underage children, she is said to have actively procured with her lies and deceit, were only Mexicans, Indians, Irish, etc ..., and not the daughters of decent, respectable, rich folks. So, I guess that doesn't make her a bad person - at least not in the eyes of the decent, respectable, rich folks, who plan Silver City's events.
Its interesting you mention the Kid possibly dressing like a Mexican in his last days, because in one of the Kid's obituaries he's described as looking somewhat Hispanic. Author WC Jameson uses that description in his book, "Billy the Kid: Beyond the Grave" in support of the theory that Billy was not shot but survived as Brushy Bill Roberts. I'll have to read that page over again and make sure I got that right.
And very interesting about the lady from Silver City. Thanks for sharing that.