The Beer-Drinking Goat Mayor of Texas

Hey, all! It’s me, your ever-so-happy tail-wagging pup JournoDog! Welcome back to my semi-regular rantings, where I sniff out the news and wag my tail for the truth.

As you remember, I’m excited about my new “JournoDog Asks” interview series that is a periodic Q&A with a “pup, pet, person, or personality of interest.”

Have you heard the story of the beer-drinking goat mayors in Texas, who all have the names Clay Henry? Well, if not strap yourself in for a wild ride…

Yes, there is a goat along in a community along the US-Mexico border that’s actually the official mayor of the small southwest Texas town. This goat drinks beer. And he is the fourth-generation beer-drinking goat mayor, following in the footsteps of his great grandfather first elected in 1986 (though they may not be blood-relative goats, but just fellow cleft-hoofed goats who take on the honorary name and mayoral title).

For realz. I kid you not.

Tale of the Beer-Drinking Goat Mayors in Texas

This is the story of Clay Henry IV, the fourth in a line of Clay Henry goats who’ve served as elected mayor of Lajitas, TX. The fact that it’s a “ghost town” with ~ 100 people, a resort community right along the Rio Grande River near Big Bend National Park (one of the least-visited national parts in the USA) is partly why this is possible.

You may recognize the line of Clay Henry goat mayors who love beer, because they’ve in national and global news stories over the years and even been in movies, featured on Jon Stewart’s TV show, and drank beer with the likes of Willie Nelson. Yep, celeb status indeed!

As the legend goes: a man from Houston back in the early 80s decided to run for mayor. Someone didn’t like the idea of this “old goat outsider” running in the election, and he contested the election with his beer-drinking goat. In that first election run, Henry Clay lost. But in the next cycle, the goat was elected. And the rest is history, so to speak.

Amazingly, there are more layers to this incredible story. Settle in, folks.

Apparently in 1992 at the ripe age of 23, both Clay Henry and his son, Jr, were both drinking beers in the same pen and got pretty sloshed. Sr. was said to be a ladies’ goat, and apparently during rutting season the two drunken goats got into a dispute over a female goat (the nanny, some say) – and Clay Henry Jr ended up head-butting his father to death.

Wow.

The original Clay Henry is now stuffed and on display at the Starlight Theatre in a nearby ghost town of Terlingua – stuffed with a beer bottle wedged into his open mouth.

Internet reports say that Clay Henry II apparently “drank to forget” from that point on, and served as mayor until 1998. There was apparently a time without a goat and the town didn’t have a mayor, but the resort’s tourists demanded a successor. That mayoral title went to Clay Henry III, who officially became mayor in 2000 after winning an election against other candidates that included a wooden Indian and a dog named Clyde.

There’s more, too.

Apparently in November 2001, Clay Henry III ended up as national news himself (for more than just being a beer-drinking goat mayor, that is). Given the tradition of people flocking to this small town to see the goat mayor and give him longneck beer bottles to sip from, that led to a different kind of drunken violence – this time with a human. Apparently, a man by the name of Jim Bob Hargrove (seriously!) was offended that good beer was going to a goat, and he decided to drink heavily and then go castrate Clay Henry III in a knife attack. Clay Henry was found in a pool of blood the next morning, and in Hargrove’s condo fridge they found one of the goat’s testicles.

Word is also that after that incident, they tried to tone down the beer consumption and Clay Henry III stuck with Gatorade most of the time. But now since Clay Henry IV has taken over in recent years, the beer-drinking is back on. And the younger Clay Henrys have all been happy with their own female goats, all known as Annabelle.

Incredible!!!!

Via a Via a New York Times story from 2002, here’s the kibble on what Clay Henry (of whatever generation) actually does as mayor:

“He is admittedly a symbolic figure, a mascot of sorts, a publicity tool. He does not involve himself with zoning or ribbon cuttings. He is not a strategic planner. His responsibilities consisted of being available for tourists who wanted a peek at the beer-drinking goat. But he did apparently affix his hoof print to at least one piece of legislation introduced at the state capitol.”

Interview with Clay Henry IV’s Chief of Staff

Being a #JournoDog, I wanted the scoop (of food) on this story. And who better to get the details from, than straight from the… goat’s… mouth. So I called Texas to try and get Clay Henry IV on the phone.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible. I phoned the Lajitas General Store, where Clay Henry lives. But as it was still early morning there, I was informed that the goat mayor was not available (before 8am Texas time, he was probably still sleeping off a hangover from the night before). Instead, I spoke with store owner Ted Rose, who in good humor agreed to talk more during a 15-minute conversation. Here’s my interview with Ted:

JournoDog: Thanks for talking with me, Ted. Can you start off with a bit of background on Clay Henry?

Ted: Well, the best thing to tell you is what’s on the Internet. If you go online and really look for “Clay Henry” and “Lajitas, Texas” there’s a whole history you can find — from Roadside America to other sites. It’s about as accurate as anything, or as many of us would know because most of us weren’t around then. Though, there are some in Terlingua who do know the history and can talk about it.

[as recounted above, from the history online that include tidbits from original Clay Henry owner Bill Ivey who started everything back in the 80s]

But he’s actually the mayor, for real…?

Yes, he is our mayor. We have an actual election on him and have him elected. Henry (Clay) the IV is now mayor, but it all started back in 1986. Basically, the old owner and one of his cronies were having a discussion and one of them was going to run for mayor. And the other one said, if you can run for mayor then so can my goat. And Clay Henry eventually won by a landslide. I don’t know when Henry IV actually took over, but he was here when I came here about a year-and-a-half ago. And he is married — Annabelle is his wife. All the goats that are mayor are named Clay Henry and may not actually be blood-related, and all the wives are Annabelle.

Does Clay Henry have a political party or platform on issues?

They are beer-drinking goats and we have a good time with it. We are a resort and he’s a figure-head type thing. It’s just fun and we like to have fun here. He’s part of our logos (for the resort) and on caps on everything, and the phrase “Vote the Goat!” is used down here when the elections are on. But we don’t get political with it.

There was a news story not long ago that quoted the original owner Bill Ivey and he put it well, about what Clay Henry has stood for since the beginning: “Politics, as we all know now, they can get you down. So, they were looking for something to smile about at that time.”

Sounds like if he did take on mayoral political duties, tourism and alcohol would be his top issues…

That’s probably true. A lot of people do come here for that fun of seeing Clay Henry and drinking beer with him. But we are a 27,000-acre resort and our main attraction is our golf course, the top ranked one in the state of Texas according to the Dallas Morning News. So we got a lot of people flying in just to play golf, or other activities like zip lines, horse-back riding, and everything – including seeing Clay Henry.

Being on the Mexican border, any ‘crisis’ or issues related to border security, fencing or walls?

We aren’t just near the line, we are ON the line. You hit a golf ball the wrong way and you’ll need a passport to go get it. The division is the Rio Grande River and our resort sits right on the river. But we have a lot of open space and we love having people come see it here.

And Clay Henry is protected. We have an enclosure that he’s kept in for his own protection – not the people’s protection, but for his own. Because if you read up on, you’ll read that Clay Henry III was castrated back many years earlier. And they got real upset here about that. So we do make sure our mayor isn’t in danger.

Does Clay Henry have a favorite kind of beer?

There are stories that say different things… Some have said he can guzzle up to 40 beers a day. I’ll read this part that was written in the Houstonia Magazine: “Lacking opposable thumbs, Clay Henry had two methods for consuming alcohol. The first involved a holster affixed to the wall of his pen—er, office—in which a bottle could be placed like a water feeder in a hamster cage. Other times, as if to flex his municipal muscle, Clay Henry would crane his neck demandingly and paw at the ground until a constituent inserted a longneck (usually a Lonestar) directly into his mouth. The lawmaker would hold it aloft with great skill as the alcohol disappeared down his gullet, polishing off a 12-ounce bottle in 10 seconds or less. Once finished, he’d spit out the bottle and unfurl a long tentacle-like tongue, which he used to wipe any remaining suds from his thin, purple lips. The aggressive pawing would begin once more and it was on to the next round. He was, without a doubt, a full-fledged alcoholic. He was also a goat.”

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Wow, what a fabulous goat… Maybe at some point I’ll be able to take a CAR RIDE to Texas to visit Clay Henry in person! But if not, at least I got the chance to learn about him and talk with Ted.

Ok, that’s all for this week. Until the next time, whenever the news beckons like a barking dog you can’t help but pay attention to, #JournoDog out. Remember to sniff me out on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram if you’re social media savvy.

As always, remember: Love your pets. Read a newspaper. Support local journalism, as well as zoos and farms where other animals like goats are at. And try to smile and find a little happiness for your heart every day.

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