Hanging Tree, Cerrillos, New Mexico Poster

This large cottonwood tree, planted in 1905 on First Street in Cerrillos, New Mexico, is called the Hanging Tree and was featured in the 1988 movie "Young Guns," a fictionalised story about Billy the Kid. Emilio Estevez starred as William H. "Billy the Kid" Bonney. Cerrillos is on the Turquoise Trail between Albuquerque and Santa Fe. The church on the left is Iglesia San Jose (St. Joseph Church), built in 1922. In the distance are the Ortiz Mountains. Cerrillos started in 1880 as a mining town when the railroad came through the Galisteo River valley. Cerrillos supported the population of the mining district to the North. There are over 2,000 Territorial mines in the hills. The mines produced gold, copper, silver, galena, turquoise, manganese and Iron. The prehistoric mining of Cerrillos Turquoise began around 900 A.D. and was traded far and wide.