Sanderson: Too Mean for Roy Bean

Sanderson is the county seat of Terrell County in the Trans-Pecos canyon country of southwest Texas, and it carries a nickname that says everything about its frontier character: Too Mean for Roy Bean. When the Southern Pacific Railroad built through here in eighteen eighty-two, it became a cattle and railroad town rough enough that saloon-keeper and self-appointed frontier justice Roy Bean tried to open a bar here , and got run off. According to local legend, a rival saloon owner named Charlie Wilson spiked Bean's whiskey barrels with kerosene, making the product unsellable, and Bean moved on to Langtry, where he set up as the self-declared Law West of the Pecos.

Sanderson became Terrell County's seat in nineteen oh five when the county was carved out of Pecos County. A devastating flood in nineteen sixty-five killed dozens of residents and reshaped the town. Sanderson today has a population of under eight hundred, sustained by ranching, the Union Pacific line, and proximity to Big Bend country.