Editing Fort Sumner, New Mexico (section)

==History==
Named after former [[New Mexico Territory]] military governor [[Edwin Vose Sumner]], [[Fort Sumner|U.S. Fort Sumner]] was a military fort established in 1862 and charged with the internment of nearby [[Navajo]] and [[Mescalero Apache]] populations from 1863 to 1868. The federal government closed the fort in 1868 and sold its buildings to [[Lucien Maxwell]], a prominent New Mexico landowner, in 1870.<ref name="Pearce_1965">Pearce, T.M.,editor, ''New Mexico Place Names, A Geographical Dictionary'', University of New Mexico Press 1965. {{ISBN|0-8263-0082-0}}</ref> In the latter 1870s Maxwell's son Pete befriended legendary outlaw Billy the Kid,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.angelfire.com/mi2/billythekid/maxwellpatron.html |title=Three Friends of Billy the Kid |access-date=January 12, 2019 |work=[[Angelfire]]}}</ref> and it was in his house that Billy was killed by [[Pat Garrett]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/billy-the-kid-is-shot-to-death |title=Billy the Kid is shot to death |date=November 13, 2009 |access-date=December 13, 2018 |work=[[History.com]] |publisher=[[A&E Television Networks]]}}</ref> Billy the Kid is buried in the old military cemetery in Fort Sumner,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://mentalfloss.com/article/83096/why-billy-kids-tombstone-says-pals |title=Why Billy the Kid's Tombstone Says 'Pals' |first=Stacy |last=Conradt |date=July 15, 2016 |access-date=January 12, 2019 |work=[[Mental Floss]]}}</ref> as is Lucien Maxwell.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iYzmXu2BB0oC&pg=PA37 |title=Maxwell Land Grant: A New Mexico Item
|first=William Aloysius |last=Keleher |publisher=[[University of New Mexico Press]] |year=1983 |page=37 |isbn=9780826306784}}</ref>

In 1866, the U.S. government was holding thousands of Native American Indians at Fort Sumner after they were subdued by Kit Carson. [[Charles Goodnight]] and [[Oliver Loving]] saw a business opportunity and decided to sell beef to the United States Government so that the captive, displaced, and imprisoned Native Americans could be fed. This enterprise led to the establishment of the [[Goodnight-Loving Trail]].

In March 1908, the Eastern Railway of New Mexico (as subsidiary of the [[Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway]]) arrived as part of the [[Belen Cutoff]];<ref name="Myrick_1990">Myrick, David, ‘’New Mexico’s Railroads, A Historic Survey’’, University of New Mexico Press 1990. {{ISBN|0-8263-1185-7}}</ref> now [[BNSF]].

In the 1920s the [[Transcontinental Air Transport]] airline built an airfield in Fort Sumner as part of its coast-to-coast air passenger network, but the site was abandoned when the airline's ambitious plans collapsed in the [[Great Depression]]. The airfield was reopened by the [[United States Army Air Forces]] as a training base during World War II. After the war, the base became the [[Fort Sumner Municipal Airport]], and was chosen as a launch site for [[NASA]]'s [[high-altitude balloon]] program (see [[Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility]]).