Langtry School

When Langtry's school closed in 1972, its students went to Comstock, twenty-nine miles northwest of Del Rio on U.S. 90. Comstock began as a station on the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio, named for railroad dispatcher John B. Comstock, and its first townsite, Sotol City, moved to be near a natural lake. It got a post office and the Ames General Store in 1888, and until 1910 the Deaton Stage Line ran a six-horse coach to Ozona, changing teams four times. By 1901 Comstock's public school had one teacher and eighty-nine students.

What the plaque says

Langtry School The first Langtry School was built on this site prior to 1900. A 1911 school building had a bell to summon children to class and the community to Sunday School. The academic year typically lasted six months or less, with reading, writing, civics and math as the the main subjects. In 1934 the present schoolhouse was built for ten grades under one roof. The auditorium hosted many school, church and social activities. In the 1950s, Pumpville school consolidated with Langtry, which in turn closed in 1972 when students started attending Comstock. The historic schoolhouse, renamed Vashti Skiles Community Cenyer for Langtry's longtime teacher, remains a focal point of the historic town. (2008)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Judge Roy Bean Visitor Center — 0.8 mi
  The state travel center at Langtry, built around the saloon where Roy Bean held court as justice of the peace for twenty years, in a town named for a railroad foreman.
• Pecos River Overlook — 14 mi
  A roadside pullout at the east end of the US-90 bridge, looking down into the gorge that made the Pecos a barrier for travelers and a byword for the edge of the law.
• Seminole Canyon State Park and Historic Site — 17 mi
  The state park west of Comstock where rangers lead visitors down to Fate Bell Shelter and its Pecos River-style paintings, some three to four thousand years old.
• Shumla Archaeological Research and Education Center — 24 mi
  The Comstock research center that documents the Lower Pecos murals, which it calls the oldest books in North America, and opens its headquarters to visitors four days a week.

More markers nearby

• The Torres Family — steps away
• William H. Dodd — steps away
• Langtry — steps away
• Law West of The Pecos — steps away