Law West of the Pecos

We pulled out of Marathon and started heading for the valley this morning, after about 2 hours we hit the town of Langtry, just a little bump on the side of the road now but back in the day it was known for being “Law West of the Pecos”. The state has a beautiful visitors center there and a museum dedicated to Judge Roy Bean. Right behind the center is the original Jersey Lilly on the original site, it's been restored to just as it was when the Judge was holding court and administering justice. The Judge like to combine work with business, so many times when found guilty the fine was to buy a round of drinks for the house and jury, since he owned the house the money went right into his own pockets. There are a thousand stories about the Judge, I'll include a few that you can click on and read.

The Original Jersey Lilley

History of Judge Roy Bean

A couple of Judge Bean Stories

More stories

Click and read Occupation

I got to belly up to the bar

Crossing the Pecos

White head Museum

We found out that the Judge was buried in Del Rio and since we're spending two nights there we figured we better pay our respects. His grave has been moved and is now at the Whitehead Museum, this was done to prevent further vandalism to the stone, by moving the grave here the museum had to become a certified cemetery with the state. We just planned on seeing the grave and being on our way but ended up spending close to two hours here, what looked like a small museum on the out side turned into 21 different buildings to explore. They had a very good history of the Del Rio area and a lot of original items to see. The building itself is historic, built in 1871 before Del Rio existed it was the largest general store between San Antonio and El Paso and has served has a courthouse, church, lodge, post office and now a museum.