The Frontierado holiday celebrates the myth of the Old West, not the grinding reality. It’s celebrated the first Friday of every August, so this year that will be August 2nd.
JUDGE ROY BEAN – Phantly Roy Bean, Jr. (Phantly?) was born around 1825 and passed away March 16th, 1903. The figure has been brought to the big and small screens multiple times over the decades, with Paul Newman’s The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean as the most well-known attempt.
Well before this part-hero, part-villain became renowned as “The Only Law West of the Pecos” he was already experiencing an adventurous life. In 1841, at the age of 16, Bean hitched a ride on a flatboat from his dirt-poor Kentucky community to New Orleans, LA in search of work.
After assorted hell-raising, including a supposed stint as a riverboat gambler up and down the Mississippi, things got too dangerous for Roy in New Orleans so he fled further west. In San Antonio, TX he settled down with his brother Sam Bean for years, working in Sam’s trade of transporting goods to Santa Fe, NM and northern Mexico. Continue reading
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