Smugglers’ Trail and The Clanton Hideout

Historical marker location:

NM Highway 338, Animas, New Mexico

( north end of Animas near high school)

<h5>Side 1</h5>Smugglers once crossed this area with mule trains of contraband from Mexico, to be traded for merchandise in Arizona. In the summer of 1881, a group of Mexican smugglers was killed in Skeleton Canyon by members of the Clanton gang, including Old Man Clanton, Ike and Billy Clanton, and Curly Bill. <h5>Side 2</h5>The infamous Clanton Gang had two crude dugouts here in the 1880s that served as hideouts and a base for wide-ranging outlaw activities, particularly in connection with the Curly Bill Gang’s depredations along the Smugglers’ Trail that passed by here. Old Man Clanton was ambushed below the border in revenge for a Skeleton Canyon massacre.

New Mexico was one of the last territories to become a state, gaining statehood in 1912. Before that, it had been part of the Spanish Empire, Mexico, and the United States Territory of New Mexico.