Desert plants shine in West Texas garden

Desert garden at Langtry, Texas

Whether  you have a green thumb or are just need a break from driving through West Texas, a stop at the Judge Roy Bean Visitor Center at Langtry might be just what you need. 

The center is home to the original saloon/courtroom where the judge dispensed both booze and justice. The building stands in an oasis of more than 100 plants native to the Desert Southwest.  

This xeriscape garden features a variety of cacti, from yucca to prickly pear to ocotillo, as well as dozens of trees and shrubs.  The garden is particularly pretty when the cacti and other plants are in bloom. Plants are labeled, so they’ easily identifiable. The visitor center also has a brochure with a detailed listing of the garden’s offerings.

There’s a wide paved walkway leading though the garden. It only takes a few minutes to walk, plus the trail is wheelchair accessible.

The garden is available during visitor center open hours: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Memorial through Labor days, and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. the rest of the year.

If you want to see more pictures of Cactus of the Desert Southwest, check out my YouTube slideshow.

Judge Roy Bean: the law west of the Pecos

Judge Roy Bean's saloon and "courthouse"

If Roy Bean were a judge today, he’d probably be kicked off the bench faster than you could say “the law west of the Pecos.”

He held court in his saloon, the Jersey Lilly, or outside the porch. He would interrupt court sessions to serve customers drinks.  His decisions were often quirky, such as fining an offender $30 and a round of drinks for the house, with the admonition to pay for the drinks first.

 

Judge Roy Bean

He had one book of Texas statutes in his law library, but rarely consulted it. Instead he made up law as he went along. He nicknamed himself “the law west of the Pecos,” and became a legend in his own time.

After his death, he was nicknamed “the hanging judge,” though he only sentenced two men to hang.  Perhaps the moniker is due more to his almost having been hanged

Lilly Langtry

himself. Prior to landing in west Texas, Bean wasn’t the most law abiding citizen.  Once friends of a man he killed strung him up and then left. The horse didn’t bolt and the bride of the man Bean killed  cut him down.

But Roy Bean also had a softer side. For years he corresponded with the British actress and femme fatale, Lilly Langtry. He named his saloon, Jersey Lilly, after her, He also claimed to have named the town where he lived, Langtry, after her, though other accounts suggest it was named for a railroad employee with the same last name.  He was always inviting her to visit “her” town, but she never made it until a few months after he died.

Bean was born in 1826 in Kentucky and died in 1903 in Texas.

The saloon where he held court can be visited in Langtry. It’s located behind a Texas tourism office and shares space with a garden devoted to Southwest desert plants.  A small museum about Bean shares space with tourism information. The site is open daily; from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.

The bar where Roy Bean dispensed booze and justice

Photos by Cheryl Probst and Jon Teal