The Pecos River in Literature and Folklore

Nobody knows who first told the tales of Pecos Bill; range hands built him to pass the time and outdo each other. The youngest of eighteen children, he was lost as his family crossed the Pecos and was raised by coyotes until a cowboy convinced him he was human. He went on to invent the branding iron and the cowboy song, taught gophers to dig postholes and rode a cyclone. His bride, Slue-Foot Sue, tried his horse, the Widow-Maker, and bounced so high on her bustle that he had to shoot her to keep her from starving.

What the plaque says

The Pecos River in Literature and Folklore Noted for mineral-thick waters and sudden floods, the Pecos River snakes through Texas on its way to the Rio Grande. Historian J. Evetts Haley and folklorist J. Frank Dobie, who called it "a strange river," and a "barricade," are among many who have immortalized the Pecos in writing. Zane Grey wrote, "Rising clear and cold in the mountains of northern New Mexico, its pure waters cut through rough country that changed its flood to turbid red." Storytellers have likened the river and the arid land along it to hell, death and violence. A natural border for several counties, the Pecos is where the mythic Wild West begins, the land that produced the legendary Judge Roy Bean and fabled Pecos Bill. (2005)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Pecos River Overlook — steps away
  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 — 2.5 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 — 11 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.
• Judge Roy Bean Visitor Center — 15 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.

More markers nearby

• Railroad Bridges Over the Pecos — steps away
• Medal of Honor Fight, 1875 — steps away
• Pecos River High Bridge — steps away
• Site of Vinegarroon — 4.6 mi