Sanderson: A Visit To The Cactus Capital Of Texas Known As The Town Too Mean For Bean

A couple weeks ago S.G. Wolfe, from Sanderson, Texas, invited me to visit that particular town in the Big Bend Region of West Texas.

I got around to making a visit to Sanderson yesterday.

Sanderson is an historically interesting town known as the Cactus Capital of Texas.

Also known as the Town Too Mean For Bean due to a Sanderson saloon owner not taking too kindly to Judge Roy Bean opening a Jersey Lily Saloon franchise in Sanderson in 1883.

That particular Sanderson saloon owner, Charlie Wilson, arranged to have Judge Roy Bean's whiskey spiked with kerosene, which did not go over well with Bean's customers, which soon had Judge Roy Bean making haste to make his way back to Langtry and forever left Sanderson to be known as the Town Too Mean For Bean.

Sanderson has had other calamities hit town other than Judge Roy Bean.

On June 11, 1965 a massive flash flood roared down Sanderson Canyon hitting Sanderson with a wall of water which destroyed multiple homes and businesses.

And killed 24 people.

After the disaster 11 flood control dams were built to prevent a re-occurrence of the 1965 disaster.

I do not know if this Sanderson flood control project was known as the Sanderson River Vision.

I do know that, unlike Fort Worth, in the last half century Sanderson has actually had a killer flood that warranted a public works project to protect the safety of the public.

And I suspect Sanderson's actually needed flood control project did not cost anywhere near a billion dollars....