Law West of The Pecos

Before Texas, Bean's trail ran through Mexico, California and New Mexico. His brother Sam took him down the Santa Fe Trail to Chihuahua as a trader, but Roy got into trouble and turned up in San Diego, where another brother, Joshua, was mayor. Jailed for dueling in February 1852, he broke out, inherited Joshua's saloon at San Gabriel after Joshua was murdered that November, and narrowly escaped hanging in 1857 or 1858. He moved on to Mesilla, New Mexico, where Sam was sheriff, became his partner in a saloon, and left when the Civil War reached the Rio Grande.

What the plaque says

Law West of The Pecos Judge Roy Bean lived a life in which fiction became so intermingled with fact that he became a legend within his lifetime. Basis for his renown were the decisions which he reached in this building as the Law West of the Pecos. Court was held as frequently on the porch, spectators grouped about on horseback, as within the building. Nor was Bean above breaking off proceedings long enough to serve customers seeking services dispensed by the other businesses carried on in his courtroom-home. The Judge's "law library" consisted of a single volume, an 1879 copy of the Revised Statutes of Texas. He seldom consulted it, however, calling instead on his own ideas about the brand of justice which should apply. This he effectively dispensed together with liberal quantities of bluff and bluster. Since Langtry had no jail, all offenses were deemed finable with Beam pocketing the fines. Drunken prisoners often were chained to mesquite trees in front of the building until they sobered up enough to stand trial. Bean reached a peak of notoreity when, on February 21, 1896, he staged the banned Fitzsimmons-Maher heavyweight title fight on a sand bar in the Rio Grande River, a stone's throw from his front porch. By holding it on Mexican territory he outwitted Texas Rangers sent to stop the match -- and turned a handsome profit for his shrewdness. This building was named the "Jersey Lilly" for the famous English actress Lillie Langtry whom Bean admired and for whom he claimed to have named the town. His lamp frequently burned into the night as he composed letters to her. But he never saw her since her only visit to Langtry occurred in 1904, less than a year after Bean died. (1963)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Judge Roy Bean Visitor Center — 0.6 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 — 25 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

• Langtry — steps away
• William H. Dodd — steps away
• The Torres Family — steps away
• Langtry School — steps away