Old "E"-Town, as it is sometimes called, lies upon barren
hillsides overlooking the rich Moreno valley. You have to look
hard to find what's left of Elizabethtown after you see the few
stone buildings still standing. They and the cemetery are the
only remnants of this gold mining town where 7000 people once
lived.
The Moreno gold fields reached far out into the vast Maxwell
land grant to explode "E"-Town into existence. Nearly every
treasure-filled creek and mountainside had its hydraulic mining
operations. Then in 1901 came that famous dredge the
Eleanor-- a fabulous piece of machinery that revolutionized the
mining industry here.
Fortunes were quickly made and lost and made again, until
the gold was gone and the mining era ended. And the
abandoned Eleanor squatted in her sandy river bed until the
weather-filled years reduced her to a derelict. If you look
carefully you'll find parts of her still buried in the now nearly-dry
Moreno River.
Wild and giddy "E"-Town had her crimes and her outlaws as
well as her law-abiding citizens. Desperados with such colorful
names as Coal Oil Jimmy, "Long" Taylor who was six feet seven
and Pony O'Neil all stayed here.
But the worst character in all this mountain country was
Charles Kennedy. He kept a traveller's rest, just out of town on
the Taos road. It was a house of horrors to all who stayed there.
Guests disappeared mysteriously. What happened was finally
brought out when Kennedy's mistreated wife rushed into town for
help. Kennedy, was for the third time, killing another child of his.
When help arrived the murderer was burning the bones of
several of his victims. Officers found other skeletons buried
under the floor. Enraged citizens, fearing that justice would not
be done, snatched the killer from the lawmen. They put a rope
around Kennedy's neck and dragged him through the streets,
choking him to death.
Elizabethtown is on State Highway 38, five miles northwest of
the resort town of Eagle Nest where you'll find good accommo-
dations.