Yesterday, I spent the day with some old friends Chip Newton and Jim Hollmann kicking around in the brush. We ended up on the Tunstall ranch, where I met two new friends, the cowboys who own the place. The phone didn't ring all day, Tunstall still doesn't have cell service!

This is a picture of the ranch house, the last place John Tunstall spent the night. In the day the house was a dug out, you came in through the door and stepped down, onto a dirt floor. This is the original fireplace, it had a hearth that set up, about the height as a chair, where you could sit by the fire. Years later, the floor was built up with fill dirt and then a slab was poured, putting the fireplace at floor level. You walk in to a level floor. Then they put in the windows, raised the roof and added onto the building.

The location for the house was chosen for the water. In the trees you see behind the house is the river, there's a big pool with fish. They say they found what they described as what looked like a picnic area by the river. The place is about 60 miles from Lincoln, on today's highway, the old road was shorter but it was sill a good distance. This is real cow country, as you might be able to tell, good grass.

I heard from two different sources, behind the house, across the river, on the hill that you see, the Kid killed a bear. Thanks to my old friends, and my new ones, it was a good-cowboy day boys.

WARNING - This is New Mexico and the Tunstall Ranch is private property it takes an invention to go onto private property. Without being invited the BEST you can hope for is a trip to jail. ©