The Planting of Judge Roy Bean

How the “Law West of the Pecos” got his start.

- Mark Boardman

Roy Bean was looking for new opportunities in the summer of 1882. He’d already carved a wide trail in the Southwest and in California, mostly as a conman and general ne’er do well. But at age 57 or so—his birth is not recorded but thought to be in 1825 in Kentucky—he was looking for some permanence in his life.

So he went to Eagle’s Nest, a tiny settlement set up by the Texas Rangers on the last day of June, just a spot in the Big Bend Region north of the Rio Grande. The Rangers would maintain law and order, but they needed a justice of the peace to help out. As it stood, they had to move prisoners 600 miles to Fort Stockton.