Carlsbad, NM-5-11-07

Pics: 1) Michael talking to the bartender in the saloon at the West of the Pecos Museum in Pecos, TX; 2) the price sheet of the attached Orient Hotel around the early 1900's; 3) one of the many windmills, for pumping water, and corral along the way; 4) one of the many oil rigs in the area (also called grasshoppers); 5) Texas speed limit sign for this part of I-10 in west Texas.

5-11-07-Friday-65224-274-Carlsbad, NM-Sunny-+63 low-+94 high

Saw 2 whitetail deer, 2 jack rabbits

We left Carlsbad, NM, after we mailed a few boxes (of mostly winter gear) home. Driving south on US Hwy 285, we passed through Pecos City, Texas and stopped at the “West of the Pecos Museum”. Built in 1896 by R.S. Johnson, a former Texas Ranger, the first floor was a saloon with bedrooms upstairs. In 1904, the three-story Orient Hotel was added. Each room had a big rug, an iron bedstead, two chairs, a washstand with a large white bowl and pitcher, and dresser with mirror. There was a “wash room” on the ground floor and one large complete bathroom on the 2nd and 3rd floors. Water was supplied by an artesian well behind the hotel. The pressure was great enough to take water to the top floor. This building was used as a hotel until the mid-fifties. Also, on the property was a replica of Judge Roy Bean’s Saloon and a jail. The colorful and eccentric Bean (known as the “Hanging Judge”) was appointed as a circuit judge to enforce the law west of the Pecos River, which included Pecos. Every few months he would leave his headquarters in Langtry, TX, 180 miles south of Pecos, and come to Pecos and hold court a few blocks south of the Museum. The Original saloon is still standing in Langtry. One other item that was interesting was the grave of “Clay Allison”, a notorious gunfighter in New Mexico and respected local citizen in Pecos. He was known to have said, “NEVER KILLED A MAN THAT DIDN’T NEED KILLING”.

We spent the night at a rest stop on Interstate 10 in Texas.