Del Rio Museum Marks 25 Years of Cajun Fest Fundraiser in April

The Whitehead Memorial Museum raised funds Saturday for Val Verde County's only full-time public museum during its 25th annual Cajun Fest, a milestone that began with a crawfish boil in 2002 and has since grown into the primary financial engine for a two-acre historic campus holding 19 buildings and more than 1,500 artifacts.

The April 4 fundraiser drew attendees to 1308 S. Main St. in Del Rio for all-you-can-eat crawfish, catfish, and jambalaya, with live music providing a backdrop for what has become one of the county's most durable community traditions. The drive-through and pickup format, adopted in recent years to streamline service, kept lines moving; advance tickets were required, with online sales closing the Monday before the event. Adult general admission ran $30, or $33 with the online service fee, up from $25 in 2022. Children ages 6 to 17 paid $15 in that earlier edition; tickets are non-refundable and do not include drinks.

The significance of the quarter-century mark extends well beyond the menu. Without Cajun Fest and comparable fundraising, the Whitehead Memorial Museum operates as an institution with no local substitute: it is the county's sole continuously operating public museum, and every dollar raised goes directly toward sustaining a collection with no backup.

That collection traces its origins to 1962, when the Whitehead family, a noted local ranching family, purchased the old Perry Mercantile Building and donated it to the City of Del Rio and Val Verde County to serve as a museum. In 1974, Ima Jo Fleetwood deeded additional property to the city, expanding the grounds into what is now Ima Jo Fleetwood Park. Today the campus spans more than two acres with 19 historic buildings and over 30 exhibit sites.

Among the most visited features: a replica of The Jersey Lilly, the frontier saloon once operated by Judge Roy Bean, and the on-site gravesites of Bean and his son Sam Bean, whose remains were relocated to the museum grounds in 1964 for safekeeping. Bean, the self-styled "Law West of the Pecos," remains one of the most recognizable figures in Texas history, giving the Whitehead Museum a profile that extends well beyond Val Verde County. The museum's Facebook page had accumulated 8,486 likes and 4,500 check-ins as of early 2026, with visitors arriving from around the world.

The museum's stated mission is to preserve artifacts reflecting "the early history, cultures, and economics of Del Rio and Val Verde County." Cajun Fest's 25th edition represented both a fundraising milestone and a measure of how durably that mission has found community support since the festival's first run. The museum can be reached at 830-774-7568.