By Mark McConville
EERIE images and video footage have revealed the abandoned American ghost town where notorious gunslinger Billy the Kid is said to have hid during the 1800s.
The haunting pictures and video show what little remains of the town which has been uninhabited for nearly 50 years, as a few heavily-graffiti-ed buildings dot around the landscape.
Other stunning shots show the neglected camp ground and forgotten petrol station beneath a spectacular Milkyway sky.
The urban exploration photographs were taken in Two Guns, Arizona, USA by photographer Jeff Hagerman (36) from Atlanta, Georgia.
“This is a ghost town called Two Guns in Arizona that was once a popular stop along old Route 66, but has now been abandoned for almost 50 years,” he said.
“Left standing there are a gas station, a campground, and a few other empty buildings, all covered in graffiti.
“I love abandoned places because there’s usually an interesting story behind why it’s been abandoned. It makes you wonder what’s happened there and to me it looks beautiful in photographs.
“This location actually contained Native American artefacts dating all the way back to 1050, there was a mass murder there between rival Native American tribes, and they even say Billy the Kid used it as a hideout in the 1800s.”
Billy the Kid (born Henry McCarty, also known as William H. Bonney; 1859 – July 14, 1881) was an American Old West gunfighter who participated in the New Mexico Territory’s Lincoln County War of 1878. He is known to have killed eight men.
In April 1881, Bonney was tried and convicted of the murder of Lincoln County Sherriff William J Brady, and was sentenced to hang in May of that year. He escaped from jail on April 28, 1881, killing two sheriff’s deputies in the process and evading capture for more than two months.
Sherriff Pat Garrett shot and killed Bonney—aged 21—in Fort Sumner on July 14, 1881. During the following decades, legends that Bonney had survived that night grew, and a number of men claimed to be him.
Jeff, who took the pictures with a Canon 5D Mark III, was staying in a nearby hotel and explained why he ventured out to Two Guns.
“I just happened to be staying at a hotel a few miles away and a friend told me about it,” he added.
“I was prepared to try astrophotography on the trip, but once I saw this place, I knew it would be the place I tried it.
“I just want to show how beautiful abandoned places can be and maybe inspire other people to go out and explore places they’ve never been.
“A lot of people wonder if the sky is photoshopped (it’s not) and people obviously are curious about where it’s located.”
