Region: Big Bend Country
Before relocating to Langtry, Judge Roy Bean disembarked at Sanderson's
still-standing 1881 depot and attempted to start a saloon. Sensing competition,
the established saloon owner poisoned Bean's whiskey barrels with kerosene,
forever branding Sanderson as "the town too mean for Bean." Vestiges of its wild
and woolly frontier beginnings abound, from the bank once robbed by the Wild
Bunch to one of the last train robberies in Texas, with its two unlucky bandits
buried in Sanderson.
Designated the "Cactus Capital of Texas" by the Texas Legislature, the town
celebrates the Prickly Pear Pachanga each Columbus Day
weekend.