These designations, along with the efforts of generations of local residents, have made Lincoln one of the best preserved old west towns left in existence and the most visited monument in the State of New Mexico.

For about a year during World War II, the Old Raton Ranch, an abandoned Civilian Conservation Corps camp on the outskirts of Lincoln, was used to confine Japanese American railroad workers and their families.

All 32 internees came from Clovis, New Mexico; the town's entire Japanese American population was placed under house arrest shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor brought the U.S. into the war, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service "evacuated" them to Lincoln on January 23, 1942.

Unlike the "assembly centers" where most Japanese Americans spent the first months of their wartime incarceration, access to school, employment and recreational activities was not permitted in Lincoln.

[4][5]The historic Wortley Hotel, once owned by Pat Garrett and central to the story of Billy the Kid, began serving guests in 1874 and still provides lodging to travelers.