For generations now, rumors have swirled that Billy the kid's grave over at Fort Sumner was swept away by a massive flood.

But is there any truth to the stories?

And how can we be certain that Billy is actually buried under his current gravestone?

Okay, so Fort Sumner, where the kids allegedly buried, was first established as a military post in 1862.

And over the next few years, the Fort Cemetery

would welcome nearly two dozen soldiers. Civilians would also be buried there after Lucia Maxwell

purchased the Ford in 1870, the most famous, of course, being Billy the Kid. He was laid to rest on July 15, 1881,

right next to his old buddies, Charlie Boudry, and Tom Folliard.

And although a wooden cross was placed over his grave, it was soon riddled with bullets and stolen.

And for over the next three decades, Billy's final resting place would remain completely unmarked.

Skip ahead to the fall of 1904, and that's when the Pacas River rose from its banks, submerging the cemetery under about four feet of water.

And from what I understand, this was not the only time that the graveyard was flooded.

Apparently, it was also submerged back in 1889, and as a result of these two floods, there were a lot of people, myself included,

who have been under the impression that some of the caskets or bodies may have been displaced.

Or at the very least, it would probably be next to impossible to determine where anyone was originally buried.

More on that in just a moment, but later on in that same year, it was announced that the cemetery, there at Fort Sumner,

would be shut down entirely.

For historian David G. Thomas, the decision was motivated by a desire to consolidate all state military burials, plus a concern that further Pacas River flooding would entirely wash away

the old cemetery.

Now, initially, the plan was to relocate all of the bodies, but eventually they decided to

just move the soldiers and leave the civilians where they were.

And that particular task fell to a guy by the name of Charles Dudrow.

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