Langtry, Texas
| Langtry, Texas | |
|---|---|
| Unincorporated community | |
|
Main Street in Langtry | |
  Langtry, Texas Location within Texas | |
| Coordinates: 29°48′31″N 101°33′31″W / 29.80861°N 101.55861°WCoordinates: 29°48′31″N 101°33′31″W / 29.80861°N 101.55861°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Texas |
| County | Val Verde |
| Elevation | 1,289 ft (393 m) |
| Population (2013) | |
| • Total | 17 |
| Time zone | Central (CST) (UTC-6) |
| • Summer (DST) | CDT (UTC-5) |
| ZIP codes | 78871 |
| Area code | 915 |
| GNIS feature ID | 1377171, 2034106 |
Langtry is an unincorporated community in Val Verde County, Texas, United States. The community is notable as the place where Judge Roy Bean, the "Law West of the Pecos", had his saloon and practiced law.
History
Langtry was originally established by European Americans in 1882 of the Southern Pacific Railroad as a grading camp called "Eagle Nest." It was later renamed for George Langtry, an engineer and foreman who supervised the immigrant Chinese work crews building the railroad in the area.
Roy Bean arrived soon after completion of the railroad and set up a tent saloon on company land. He later built a wooden structure for his saloon, which he called "The Jersey Lilly" after the well-known British stage actress Lilly Langtry. She was a native of the island of Jersey. (Born with the surname Le Breton, she was not related to George Langtry.) Bean used the saloon as his headquarters when authorized as a justice of the peace and notary public. He called himself the "Law West of the Pecos." After a notable career as justice of the peace, Bean died in 1903.
In 1884 the town was authorized a post office. In 1892 it had a general store, a railroad depot, and two saloons. Langtry began to decline after the highway was moved slightly north in the early 1900s for a more direct east-west route. Once bypassed, the town's businesses lost revenue and jobs. When in the 1920s Southern Pacific moved its facilities away, more jobs were lost and the town population dwindled to 50.
By the 1970s the population dipped as low as 40. Tourism to the Judge Roy Bean Visitor Center continues to keep the town alive.
In 1955, Robert Burton Willingham claimed an unidentified flying object (UFO) crashed along the south bank of the Rio Grande, just a few hundred feet into Mexico.[1] The incident came to be known as the Del Rio, Texas UFO Crash. Willingham, a former Air Force Reserve pilot, stated that he was flying a North American F-86 Sabre jet fighter when he observed a UFO streak past him and crash near Langtry.[2] No local residents have been located who could confirm Willingham's story.
Popular culture
- The 1940s film The Westerner featured Walter Brennan as Judge Roy Bean and Gary Cooper as a fictional interloper. It repeated the myth of the town's being named for Lillie Langtry.
- Lillie, a 1978 TV mini-series about Lillie Langtry produced by London Weekend Television (LWT), also related the myth of the Texas town's name.
- In 1956, Judge Roy Bean, a western television series set in Langtry but filmed in Pioneertown, California, aired in syndication with Edgar Buchanan in the title role. The supporting cast included Jack Buetel, Jackie Loughery, and Russell Hayden.[3]
- The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, a 1972 film set in Langtry and starring Paul Newman, sparked new interest in Texas history.
- The Other Roswell: UFO Crash on the Texas-Mexico Border (2008), non-fiction book about a reported UFO crash at Langtry, Texas in 1955.
- The town plays a major role in R.A. Lafferty's science-fiction novel, Fourth Mansions.
- Langtry is mentioned in the Cormac McCarthy novel "No Country for Old Men". It is implied that Langtry could be the hometown of the novel's protagonist, Llewelyn Moss.
- Langtry and the surrounding area have long been favorite hunting grounds for legions of amateur and professional herpetologists looking for a variety of reptiles endemic to the area.
Gallery
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Langtry, Texas. |
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Scenic Pecos River east of Langtry: Judge Roy Bean claimed to have been "The Law West of the Pecos". -
Judge Bean historical marker in Langtry -
Judge Roy Bean holding court at "The Jersey Lilly" -
The Jersey Lilly saloon (September 2005) -
Inside Judge Bean's saloon in Langtry -
A restaurant named for actress Lillie Langtry in Langtry, Texas -
The western windmill at the Judge Roy Bean Visitor Center -
Sunset Route, Mile Creek Canyon (3 miles East of Langtry, Texas, postcard, circa 1908)
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Sunset Route, Mile Canyon, near Langtry, Texas (postcard, circa 1908)
References
- ↑ Dembeck, Chet (2011) Extreme UFO Briefing Book -- For Your Eyes Only Publisher of One, Baltimore, Maryland, page 40, ISBN 978-0-9778483-1-7
- ↑ Torres, Noe; Uriarte, Ruben (2008). The Other Roswell: UFO Crash on the Texas-Mexico Border. RoswellBooks.com. ISBN 978-0-9817597-0-8.
- ↑ Billy Hathorn, "Roy Bean, Temple Houston, Bill Longley, Ranald Mackenzie, Buffalo Bill, Jr., and the Texas Rangers: Depictions of West Texans in Series Television, 1955 to 1967", West Texas Historical Review, Vol. 89 (2013), pp. 109-110
External links
- Langtry, Texas from the Handbook of Texas Online
- "Lillie Langtry", JaynesJersey
- "The Life & Times of Judge Roy Bean", IMDB -film
- "Roy Bean", IMDB - 1956 TV show
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