Langtry was originally established in 1882 by 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 immigrantChinese 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 Britishstage actressLillie Langtry. She was a native of the island of Jersey. 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.
Popular culture
The Westerner, a film featuring 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.
The Other Roswell: UFO Crash on the Texas-Mexico Border, 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.
The episode "A Picture of a Lady" in the western series Death Valley Days depicts Judge Roy Bean renaming the Texas town of Vinegaroon as Langtry in honor of his love interest Lillie Langtry.
Langtry inspired the fictional town of Langtree in the video game Wandersong.
