Oil, Texas crude…. gentleman gunfighter & law of the west…. caverns…

Pecos…home of the wild west, first ever rodeo, a shale oil drilling boom, and cantaloupe. It’s a rough and tumble town clearly dominated by oil rigs, big trucks, oil camps, and presumably lots of money. One barber makes upwards of $180,000 by giving haircuts in the “man-camps.” Oil workers with no time to spare will pay $75 to just get to the head of the line.

This is home of the legendary Judge Roy Bean, law of the west, even though he was only a Justice of the Peace. In his early years before he became the “law,” he had a duel over a woman, killed the other man, was hanged but survived the hanging. Bore the marks of the rope burn around his neck the rest of his life. He held court in his saloon and had a loose interpretation of the law and once freed a man for killing a Chinese because he knew of no law making it a crime to kill a Chinaman.

Then there was Clay Alison, the “Gentleman Gunfighter”, a master with a six-shooter. He cut the head off one man and carried it for 26 miles. His tombstone at the old saloon is inscribed with his quote: “he never killed a man that didn’t need killing.”

The saloon, now a museum, is a treasure trove from the heydays of Pecos: a room filled with saddles & hats & samples of barbed wire; a room filled with guns; replica of a schoolroom with rules for teachers; period dress, replica of a doctors office with his medical tools of the day. A treasure trove of 50 rooms filled with artifacts of the glory days era and a flush of memories of my “cowgirl” days growing up: riding horses, spurs, boots, chaps, Stetson hat.

Pecos looks very different today. It’s an oil town. As I drove out, I passed one oil company after another with powerlines everywhere. The road finally transitioned into the Chihuahuan Desert bringing us to Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Hidden beneath the surface are more than 119 caves—formed when sulfuric acid dissolved limestone leaving behind caverns of all sizes. Because of Covid19, we were allowed to only go on a self-guided tour 750’ down into the Big Room. The last time I had been here I was 12 years old. The cave is truly remarkable. We were down for about 3 hours. Can’t imagine what else we might have seen if the whole cave had been open. This was sensory overload enough. Now there is an easy switchback foot trail. To have explored this cave in the beginning would have been a harrowing and arduous feat overcoming obstacles and fear.

It was a good day…