Lincoln County, New Mexico was once one of the largest counties in the United States and was the setting for a famous feud which lit up the horizon of history. Here between 1869 and 1881 were all the explosive ingredients for violence. On one side of the county was the Mescalero Apache reservation. A day away was an Army fort to keep the Indians subdued. Along the Pecos River were hundreds of thousands of acres of public land, much of it claimed by settlers with deeds of Squatters' Rights. Conflicts over land, politics, cattle and money, sparked by the tempers of young men fueled with six-shooters and cheap whiskey, set fire to the whole tinderbox. What became known as The Lincoln County War began over a dispute for the insurance money of Emil Fritz. It flared when the killing of John H. Tunstall became an international incident and started a chain reaction of murders. The Battle of Blazer's Mill presaged the four sultry days in July when Colonel N. A. M. Dudley marched U.S. troops int