Del Rio to Stillwell Store
The Chihuahua Desert unfolds east of Del Rio as the highway veers northwest, far from the Rio Grande as it slices through the desert mountains of southwest Texas. Our path takes us to Marathon where we will turn south towards Big Bend National Park. Our first stop is the Stillwell Store, a location so remote that I can’t get it to show on MapQuest, so the map below shows the road all the way to Rio Grande Village in Big Bend National Park. Stillwell Store is actually on a side road, FM 2627, about 50 miles north of village.
A lonely Border patrol checkpoint stands alone amidst the cacti and brush of the desert.
The desert is slashed by the canyon of the Pecos River, the last significant flowing water for hundreds of miles to the west. Vegetation dwindles to cacti and brush growing out of the gravel. The top soil is so thin and the climate so harsh that even grasses find it difficult to grow. A highway cut shows just how shallow the layer of top soil is.
Just beyond the river crossing is the home of one of the iconic figures of the settling of West Texas, Judge Roy Bean, in Langtry, Texas.
Langtry
The railroad crossed the desert in the early 1880’s and a stop was established north of the Rio Grande where water was provided for steam locomotives. The town was named Langtry after George Langtry, leader of a surveying crew in the area. Later the honor of the name was co-opted by the town’s most famous inhabitant, Judge Roy Bean, after the most famous singer and actress of the age, Lilly Langtry from Jersey, England. Ms. Langtry was truly the superstar of her age and numerous establishments across the west at the time were named the “Jersey Lilly” in her honor. In fact, in my younger days I spent more than one occasion with my father, brother and friends stopping for an early breakfast out in the middle of nowhere at the Jersey Lilly saloon in Ingomar, Montana, during hunting trips. The railroad moved away from the town in the 1920’s and it quickly declined. Today a few peoples live in the area and it survives primarily as a tourist stop.
Lawlessness ran rampant throughout the land of the Pecos in the 1880’s and citizens were desperate for help from the Texas Rangers. The closest help was in Fort Stockton, nearly 100 miles away, so the decision was made to appoint a Justice of the Peace in Langtry. Roy Bean, a local store owner, was appointed as Justice of the Peace in 1882 and became the infamous Judge Roy Bean, proprietor of the law west of the Pecos and memorialized in books and film. The Judge had no legal experience but relied upon his copy of the 1879 Revised Statues of Texas. His courtroom was his saloon and front porch in Langtry. He was fascinated by Lillie Langtry and names his saloon and home after her. Today the state of Texas maintains the two buildings as well as an extensive cactus garden. I was surprised at just how small the saloon and billiard hall are. The saloon is probably about 12 feet wide and 18 feet long, with a small bar across one end. This was not a plush environment…
The billiard hall is slightly larger though the billiard table must have dominated the room. Three remaining legs of the original billiard table lay on the floor. The Judge died in the billiard room in 1903.
Just up the hill is the “Opera House”, which is the name the Judge gave his home. Essentially one large room, the house is furnished with pieces from the era.
The house has been restored but an opening in the wall exposes the original adobe bricks beneath the plaster.
Original photographs on the wall in the Billiard Hall show the Judge posing in front of his house and saloon.
Next to the Jersey Lilly is a lush cactus garden, which proved to be very informative in explaining what I have been characterizing as “brush” in my descriptions of the desert landscape.
I now have a greater appreciation for the landscape that unfolds before me as I leave Langtry and continue my trek through the desert…
A small stop in the desert represents the spot where I turn south towards Big Bend National Park, the hamlet of Marathon.
The most significant thing about my time in Marathon is that when I was there the only gas station was shut down due to computer problems with the pumps. Fortunately I had received advice back in Del Rio to always to top off my gas tank whenever I could as fuel supplies throughout the desert are unreliable and I had filled up in Sanderson, about 60 miles to the east. Thus I was able to continue south towards my next stop, the Stillwell Store, where gas is available about 50 miles out in the desert.
Stillwell Store
I leave US 90 and head south on Hwy 385. This road goes nowhere except into the heart of Big Bend National Park, 70 miles south. The relentless desert is now framed by stark mountains. on all sides.
Just north of the park I take a side trip down Farm to Market Road 2627, a dead end road the stops at the Rio Grande River about 30 miles off the highway, deep in the desert mountains.
This road used to lead to the town of La Linda on the south bank of the river in Mexico. Dow Chemicals operated a fluorspar mine there in the 1960’s and at one time nearly 300 people lived in the small town. The mine shut down in the 1980’s and the village abandoned. As the road approaches the end views of a canyon carved by the Rio Grande open up to the east (US the left cliff, Mexico the right) and then across the river in the haze is the abandoned mine and town.
A one lane bridge was built across the Rio Grande to access the mine from the US and it was the only crossing of the Rio Grande for 400 miles from Del Rio to Presidio. After the mine closed the bridge was used by smugglers and in 1997 it was closed and blocked, there no longer is a crossing at that site. The highway ends at the bridge.
A lonely church stands sentinel above the valley in the distance.
I turn around and head back north towards the main highway and just before the highway is my next stop, the Stillwell Store and RV Park. Hallie Stillwell is a local legend. At the age of 13 she joined her family in the move west in a covered wagon to Alpine. She became a pistol packing teacher and pioneer, married an older man who owned thousands of acres south of Marathon, and eventually became a Justice of the Peace. She helped run the ranch, doing most everything that the men did. The Stillwell Store sits on their land.
They did have gas here, though it’s been a while since you’ve seen a vintage gas pump like this… It worked!
Joey and I spent the night camped in the desert and were rewarded with glorious views at dawn.
Next up: Big Bend National Park
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