The following is from NEW MEXICO: A BRIEF MULTI-HISTORY by Rubén Sálaz Márquez.
GREATEST GUNFIGHT IN THE WEST
October 29‑31, 1884: Elfego Baca is in a gunfight at Frisco [west of Socorro, now Reserve] against 80 to 84 cowboys.
[ W.A. Beck, author of NEW MEXICO: A HISTORY OF FOUR CENTURIES, appears to have his own perspectives on Elfego Baca for he writes that many communities produced “legendary gunmen” and some are remembered as folk heroes instead of the violent ruthless killers that they were; in this role “must be placed Elfego Baca.” Baca “resented” the treatment of Spanish‑Americans at the hands of incoming Texans…]
Nineteen‑year‑old Elfego, a Deputy Sheriff, comes into Frisco on an electioneering trip and finds a cowboy, Charlie McCarty (McCarthy?), employed at the John B. Slaughter ranch, shooting up the small plaza. Elfego arrests McCarty and decides to take him to Socorro for trial when the local justice of the peace states the Slaughter cowboys will retaliate if McCarty is tried in Frisco.
Cowboys from Slaughter’s ranch, led by foreman Young Parham [Peraltam, Purham, Perryman, etc.] ride into town and demand McCarty’s immediate release. Elfego says he will give everyone to the count of three to be out of town whereupon gunshots are exchanged, Parham dying from injuries when his horse is hit and falls on him.
[One writer gives this incident quite a spin: “In the tradition of Paul Revere, cowboy couriers” ride to cattle ranches spreading the word that Mexicans are in revolt!!!-‑threatening to kill all Americans!!! One can only wonder what the reaction was when the REVOLUTION…TO KILL ALL AMERICANS!! turned out being one single individual under attack by some 80-84 gunmen.]
Some 80 to 84 cowboys converge on Frisco to find that one19‑year‑old Elfego Baca is the “Mexican War” and “threat “ to “all Americans.” The cowboys gather at the local bar, McCarty pays $5 for his “drunk and disorderly” charge and is released, but the cowboys are getting angrier by the minute.
Elfego seeks refuge in the jacal (shack) of Gerónimo Armijo, which happens to have a floor about 18 inches below ground level. One of the cowboys, William B. “Bert” Hearne [Hern, Herne, Heron) declares he has judicial authority to arrest Baca for the shootings of the previous day so he and many others make their way to the Armijo jacal. Hearne orders Baca to come out then starts kicking at the door, saying “I’ll get that little Mexican out of there!” Elfego fires two shots and Hearne falls dead.
Hearing gunshots, all cowboys converge on the Armijo shack and let loose a fusillade on the building. Elfego returns the gunfire by shooting through cracks in the walls, protected because he is belowground level. The cowboys try to burn down the shack (even sending for dynamite) without success but continue to shoot into the shack, knowing their bullets will get him sooner or later.
The next morning Elfego is very much alive, warming up coffee and tortillas for breakfast. The infuriated cowboys resume their fusillade, Elfego returning their fire.
Frank Rose, Socorro Deputy Sheriff, arrives in the afternoon and through intermediaries convinces Elfego to surrender and stand trial in Socorro. Elfego accepts, on the condition that he retains his guns. Cowboys keep their rifles trained on Elfego and want to lynch him immediately but he is taken to Socorro where he is found not guilty of all charges.
More than 4,000 bullet holes were later counted in the shack, 367 in the half‑sized door alone, 8 bullet holes in a broomstick standing in a corner. The 33‑hour siege had splintered everything inside the shack but no bullet touched Elfego or a statue of Nuestra Señora Santa Ana, which Elfego came to regard as his Guardian Angel.
W.A. Beck quotes Harvey Fergusson as saying that Baca’s heroics deserve to be remembered but then states “there are those who feel the facts have grown with the telling.”
PROFILE BIOGRAPHY
Elfego Baca
HERO IN THE WEST’S MOST INCREDIBLE GUN FIGHT
February 15, 1865: Elfego Baca is baptized in the Socorro Catholic Church.
1866: The Baca family relocates to Topeka, Kansas. Elfego hears Spanish at home but is reared in the English‑speaking environment of the Kansas frontier.
1872: Elfego’s mother, sister, and brother die within a month of each other.
[No cause is given. Elfego returns to Socorro to live with his Uncle Abdenago but the return date is uncertain.]
1880: Elfego is living in Socorro.
1881: Baca meets Billy the Kid.
Elfego helps his father escape from a Los Lunas jail.
October 29‑31, 1884: Elfego single‑handedly defends himself against 80 to 84 armed cowboys in Frisco (Reserve).
1885: Baca is charged with murder because of the Frisco fight. He is acquitted of all charges.
August 13, 1885: Elfego marries Francisquita Pohmer. They live in Albuquerque.
1890s: The Baca family is living in Socorro.
1893: Baca is elected County Clerk of Socorro County and serves to 1896. (He let it be known that during the months of December and January there would be no charge for recording of deeds, bills of sale, etc., thus helping the poor people of the community.) He studies law in a private law office (as was customary in those days).
1894: Elfego Baca is admitted to the bar and in two months becomes a junior partner in the Socorro law firm of Freeman and Baca.
1896‑1898: Elfego is Mayor of Socorro.
1899(?): Baca tells some friends about entering a restaurant in Roswell. He is told We don’t serve Mexicans here. He draws his gun and is quickly served the meal of his choice.
1900‑1901: Baca is School Superintendent of Socorro County.
19o4: Elfego is practicing law in El Paso, Texas.
1905‑1906: Elfego is District Attorney for Socorro and Sierra counties.
1907: Baca moves to Albuquerque, lives at 401 North 6th Street, with legal offices in the N.T. Armijo Building on the corner of Central Avenue and 2nd Street. The following year he forms a partnership with Lowell Loughary. Baca is still interested in the prospecting and mining of gold, silver, and copper in N.M.
1911: The Republican Party nominates Baca for the House of Representatives. He loses to Democrat Harvey B. Fergusson.
1913: Baca runs but again loses for the House of Representatives. He establishes a printing plant and publishes La Opinión Pública, a weekly political newspaper. He organizes an independent political group, The Bolt and Nut Club, and later publishes a small paper called La Tuerca (The Nut). Subscription prices are “$2 a year to good citizens, $5 a year to bootleggers, $5 a month to Prohibition agents.”
While he continues to work as a lawyer he also heads a private detective agency.
January 31, 1915: Elfego Baca shoots Celestino Otero in El Paso. Otero dies but in court the jury rules that Baca acted in self‑defense.
April 10, 1915: Elfego and five others are indicted on a charge of conspiring to remove a federal
prisoner from the custody of the U.S. Marshall. All are acquitted.
1919‑1920: Baca is elected Sheriff of Socorro County. He often relies on his reputation to enforce the law. One of his strategies is to send out letters like the following:
Dear Sir: I have a warrant for your arrest. Please turn yourself in no later than (date) or I will know that you intend to resist arrest in which case I will shoot you on sight when I come after you.
Elfego Baca, Sheriff.
[Baca is supposed to have said that no person who got such a letter ever failed to turn himself in.]
1922: Elfego moves back to Albuquerque from Socorro. (For the next 25 years he runs for this office and that but is never elected.)
August 27, 1945: Elfego Baca dies peacefully at home. (In the story about Baca’s death, the Albuquerque Journal quotes Elfego as having said he had killed nine men and wounded eight others during his lifetime.)
1959: Walt Disney Studios films a television series titled “The Nine Lives of Elfego Baca” which is televised nationally.
[The gunfight is never mentioned in the series.]
