There’s off the beaten path and then there’s Lajitas—a spot so remote that it feels like you’ve driven off the edge of the map. But just when you’re sure you’ve missed civilization completely, the desert opens up to reveal a high-end resort with golf carts, spa robes and a goat that drinks beer. Welcome to the most luxurious ghost town in Texas.
The legend of Lajitas begins with the land itself—a sunbaked stretch of the Chihuahuan Desert along the Rio Grande sandwiched between Big Bend National Park and Big Bend Ranch State Park.
The town was once known for bandits, miners and cattle drives, but today it’s most famous for its unusual mayor. His name’s Clay Henry IV, and he’s a goat whose claim to fame is guzzling beer straight from the bottle like his father and his father and his father before that. He’s the world’s most carefree politician, doing his civic duty one gulp at a time.
The only thing more unexpected than the goat in charge is the Lajitas Golf Resort, a desert oasis that feels wildly out of place and yet somehow perfect. Its crown jewel is Black Jack’s Crossing, a golf course named for U.S. Army Gen. John J. “Black Jack” Pershing, who pursued Pancho Villa across the Rio Grande in 1916. There’s even a hole where players can see how far they can smack a ball across the river into Mexico.
As the day faded away, I settled into my dinner on the resort’s terrace. The mesquite-grilled rib eye and the smell of creosote in the air were only upstaged by the sun setting behind distant mountains like a slow-burning ember. Out here, fine dining and frontier grit somehow share the same table, and I was happy to be their dinner guest.
