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History · Fort Sumner

Fort Sumner’s post office opened in 1866, and 4 of its places are on the National Register

Most of Fort Sumner was built recently: 5% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1982. Below: 9 old photos and papers, maps from 1968 on, and the census since 1920.

1866first post office
4on the National Register
5%homes built before 1940
9old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Fort Sumner’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Fort Sumner began

When was Fort Sumner founded?

1866

The Fort Sumner post office opened in 1866, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Rudolph (1878) and Sunnyside (1878), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

First census: 777 in 19202020 census: 889160 years
Founding year: the first Fort Sumner post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Fort Sumner’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

Boom and bustPeaked at 1,982 in 1950; 889 people lived here in 2020.Lost villages2 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Fort Sumner.Landmarks on the Register4 places on the National Register.
★ What stands out · People over time

Fort Sumner, census by census

05001,0001,5002,000192019401960198020002020Peak: 1,982

Peaked at 1,982 in 1950; 889 people lived here in 2020.

11 censuses, 1920–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Fort Sumner’s Wikipedia page.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices, places now gone and burying grounds

Fort Sumner had its own post office from 1866 to 1907. Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Fort Sumner
1866–1907
Rudolph
1878–1878
Sunnyside
1878–1910
Fort Sumner
1910–today
18601940today
Gone or out of use
Fort Sumner Army Air Fieldmilitary
1cemetery inside Fort Sumner
Fort Sumner

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

On the National Register

4 historic places in Fort Sumner

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

places listed
4
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
4
each building in a district counts
first listed
1979
Fort Sumner Railroad Bridge
Fort Sumner Railroad Bridge, built 1905De Baca County Courthouse, built 1930Fort Sumner Community House, built 1939Fort Sumner Cemetery Wall and Entry, built 1938
BuildingsStructures

Architectural styles listings

Spanish Colonial1
Vernacular1
Bungalow/Craftsman1
Masonry Wall and Entry1
Fort Sumner Railroad BridgeBuilt 1905
De Baca County CourthouseSpanish Colonial · Built 1930
Fort Sumner Community HouseVernacular · Built 1939
Fort Sumner Cemetery Wall and EntryMasonry Wall and Entry · Built 1938

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

The story

How Fort Sumner came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Fort Sumner.

Read it all →

Named after former New Mexico Territory military governor Edwin Vose Sumner, U.S. Fort Sumner was a military fort established in 1862 and charged with the internment of nearby Navajo and Mescalero Apache populations from 1863 to 1868. The federal government closed the fort in 1868 and sold its buildings to Lucien Maxwell, a prominent New Mexico landowner, in 1870. In the latter 1870s Maxwell's son Pete and daughter Paulita befriended legendary outlaw Billy the Kid, and it was in his house that Billy was killed by Pat Garrett. Billy the Kid is buried in the old military cemetery in Fort Sumner, as is Lucien Maxwell.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Fort Sumner, 1864 to 1968

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1864In the archiveHweeldi3
  3. 1866Post officeThe Fort Sumner post office opens
  4. 1878Post officeThe Rudolph post office opens
  5. 1878Post officeThe Rudolph post office closes
  6. 1878Post officeThe Sunnyside post office opens
  7. 1882In the archiveThe Finale - The Kid killed by the Sheriff at Fort Sumner, 1881
  8. 20th century
  9. 1905BuiltFort Sumner Railroad Bridge is built
  10. 1907Post officeThe Fort Sumner post office closes
  11. 1910Post officeThe Sunnyside post office closes
  12. 1930BuiltDe Baca County Courthouse is built
  13. 1935In the archiveUntitled photo, possibly related to: Fort Sumner (vicinity), New Mexico. Landscape along …
  14. 1938BuiltFort Sumner Cemetery Wall and Entry is built
  15. 1939BuiltFort Sumner Community House is built
  16. 1943In the archiveFort Sumner, New Mexico. Train about to cross Pecos River along the Atchison, Topeka, and…
  17. 1950CensusPopulation peaks at 1,982
  18. 1968On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Fort Sumner, decade by decade

4 decades in the archive, from the 1860s to the 1940s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1860s–1880s2 items
Hweeldi3c. 1864Hweeldi3The Finale - The Kid killed by the Sheriff at Fort Sumner, 18811882The Finale - The Kid killed by the Sheriff at Fort Su…
1890s–1920snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
1930s–1940s7 items
Untitled photo, possibly related to: Fort Sumner (vicinity), New Mexico. Landscape along the Atchison, Topeka and Santa…1935Untitled photo, possibly related to: Fort Sumner (vic…Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Train about to cross Pecos River along the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad between Clo…1943Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Train about to cross Pecos R…Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Going across the sheep and cattle country along the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad, b…1943Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Going across the sheep and c…Fort Sumner (vicinity), New Mexico. Landscape along the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad in the Pecos River Valle…1943Fort Sumner (vicinity), New Mexico. Landscape along t…Untitled photo, possibly related to: Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Train about to cross Pecos River along the Atchison, Tope…1943Untitled photo, possibly related to: Fort Sumner, New…Untitled photo, possibly related to: Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Train about to cross Pecos River along the Atchison, Tope…1943Untitled photo, possibly related to: Fort Sumner, New…Fort Sumner (vicinity), New Mexico. Passing through a small town on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad in the P…1943Fort Sumner (vicinity), New Mexico. Passing through a…
1950s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
On the map

Fort Sumner on the map, 1968 to 1979

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Fort Sumner. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Fort Sumner on the 1968 USGS mapFort Sumner on the 1979 USGS map1968Fort Sumner East sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Fort Sumner.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Hweeldi3
Retake this viewHweeldi3, c. 1864

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Fort Sumner’s page.

Retake this view · +15
Help out

Finish Fort Sumner’s story

Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
2 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewHweeldi3: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10

Questions about Fort Sumner’s history

What year was Fort Sumner founded?

The Fort Sumner post office opened in 1866, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Fort Sumner?

4 listings: 2 buildings and 2 structures.

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (2), the Library of Congress (7), Wikidata (3), the National Register of Historic Places (4), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.