Beneath Still Waters: Bonita Lake And What It Hides

Bonito City, (now sunken beneath Bonita Lake, New Mexico) a rather grand name for the cluster of log buildings that housed a saloon, post office, schoolhouse, church, general store, a hotel called The Mayberry House, and a number of comfortable residences.
Set amid lofty peaks twelve miles northwest of Ruidoso, apple orchards and livestock of the Bonito settlers flourished in the seven-thousand-foot meadows at the edge of the forests. Trout fishing was excellent in the Bonito River.
God was in his heaven and all was right with the world, or so it seemed when two events took place that would cause this serene and pleasant community to literally disappear. The centerpiece of Bonito City was the two-story log hotel called the Mayberry House operated by Mr. and Mrs. John Mayberry. They had three children; John, Eddie, and Nellie. On the night of May 5, 1885, the Mayberry House leaped into the records books with one of New Mexico's most bizarre crimes.
Earlier that evening a number of miners ate supper there and left. Only two guests had rooms, Dr. R. E. Flynn from Ohio and a youth named Martin Nelson seemed to be pleasant and inoffensive roomers. All were in bed by ten o'clock. About one o'clock in the morning, Nelson arose and knocked on the bedroom door of the two Mayberry boys, John awakened and opened the door, at which point Nelson fired two rifle shots, killing him instantly. He then turned on the seven-year-old Eddie who was screaming in bed. Nelson killed him with a single blast.
Dr. Flynn, hearing the shooting, rushed from his room and was shot through the head. John Mayberry, after hearing the screams, was making his way up the dark stairs from the first floor when a shot through the heart dropped him on the landing. Blood was everywhere. Mayberry's daughter, Nellie, appeared and was shot through the side and left for dead. She later recovered.