Sallie Chisum Robert arrived from Texas at age 19 at her uncle John Chisum’s Jinglebob Land and Livestock Company ranch south of Roswell. Her ranching skills rivaled those of the cowboys she joined in driving cattle up her uncle’s Goodnight-Loving Trail to Colorado. She and her second husband opened the first post office and reading room in what became Artesia. Her landholdings became part of Artesia’s original townsite and included the site of her cast-stone house, where she raised many orphans. That house is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Some of her diaries are preserved at the Artesia Historical Museum and Art Center, including entries about her uncle, Billy the Kid, the Regulators, and the Lincoln County War.