Legends of the Desert
A long simmering Tularosa basin range war between big cattle companies and small operators boiled over when the famous attorney for the Southeastern New Mexico Livestock Association, Albert Fountain, and his eight-year-old son Henry, disappeared 1 February 1896 and were never found again. Republicans immediately assumed Oliver Lee, small rancher, fast gun, and a leading Democrat, murdered the Fountains. Quickly morphing into a political donnybrook, with leading Republicans for the prosecution and leading Democrats for the defense, the trial swore seventy-five witnesses and lasted eighteen days.
