Glossary
The words you’ll hear around Mesilla — places, history, weather and local ways, explained
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History
- Billy the Kid trial
- The April 1881 Mesilla trial that ended in a death sentence for Billy the Kid.
- Butterfield Overland Mail
- The stagecoach line whose ticket office still stands on the plaza.
- Confederate Arizona
- The Confederate territory proclaimed in 1861, with Mesilla as its capital.
- Fort Fillmore
- The army post created in 1851 to protect the Mesilla Valley from Apache raids.
- Gadsden Purchase
- The 1853 treaty by which the United States bought southern Arizona and New Mexico, also called the Treaty of Mesilla.
Land & Farming
- Acequia
- A community irrigation ditch carrying Rio Grande water to fields.
- Bosque
- The cottonwood woodland along the Rio Grande.
- Mesilla Valley
- The fertile Rio Grande floodplain from Radium Springs toward El Paso.
People
- Albert Fountain
- The lawyer, newspaper founder and theater builder who defended Billy the Kid in Mesilla.
Places
- Basilica of San Albino
- The brick church on the plaza, a minor basilica since 2008.
- Fountain Theatre
- The plaza-area theater, rebuilt in 1905, the oldest motion picture theater in New Mexico.
- Mesilla
- The town of about 1,800 on the Rio Grande’s west bank, whose name means a small table or plateau.
- Mesilla Plaza
- The National Historic Landmark square at the heart of town, ringed by Territorial-style buildings.