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Youngest Regulator

Yginio Salazar, around age twenty

Yginio Salazar was born on February 14, 1863 and grew up on the Hondo River. The Salazars eventually settled a few miles west of Lincoln. Yginio learned how to play the fiddle when he was little and was hired to play at a dance at Fort Stanton and was paid $50 for doing it. Also, Yginio became a skilled horseman and good with a rifle and pistol. Yginio met Billy the Kid and looked up to him as a role model. The only battle Yginio fought in during the Lincoln County War was the Five-Day Battle and was one of the fourteen Regulators inside the McSween house. When the Regulators had to flee the burning home, Yginio, only fifteen, was shot in the back and shoulder and pretended to be dead so he wouldn't be shot again. He crawled to his sister-in-law's house, a half-mile away from Lincoln and was treated by the Fort Stanton doctor, Dan Appel. Yginio recovered and was one of the former Regulators that met with J. J. Dolan and his henchman in February of 1879 to discuss peace. Yginio later became an honest rancher and after Billy the Kid escaped from jail in Lincoln, killing his two guards, he fled to Yginio's home and Yginio cut his shackles off and fed him. He continued to farm in Lincoln County until his death on January 7, 1936. He was buried alongside his wife in the Lincoln Cemetery and his headstone still reads "Pal of Billy the Kid."

Yginio Salazar

This photo was taken in the 1930s.

Yginio Salazar

This photo was probably taken at the same time the above photo was taken.