El Paso, TX Summary

With 600,000 residents, El Paso is the largest US city on the Mexican border. Its sister city, Juarez, is the largest Mexican city on the US border, and together they have a population of about 2 million people. El Paso is situated in an ancient mountain pass, from which its name derives, and is surrounded by desert mountains. It is a Texas city that is out there by itself on the far western thumb of the state, closer to three other state capitals—Santa Fe, Phoenix, and Chihuahua City—than to Austin, and closer to Los Angeles than to Houston. It is also in the Mountain Time Zone, unlike the rest of Texas. El Paso is 617 miles from Dallas-Fort Worth.

El Paso is greatly influenced by Mexican culture, and its maquiladora, or twin plant industry with Juarez, which utilizes cheap Mexican labor and US management, is its driving economic force. Boots and jeans are two of the major products manufactured here. Downtown streets are paved with black cement squares, as in Mexico. The city has large shopping malls that cater to Mexican shoppers coming across the border, and to Mexican street vendors who have smuggled untaxed products across the line. Tourists shop in El Paso and gamble in Juarez.

El Paso receives only 8 inches of rain a year, and has very hot summers and mild winters. Air pollution from industry is heavy, except during spring and late fall.

Long-time staples like Egyptian cotton, Messilla Valley chili peppers, and sweet onions make this a rich agricultural area.

El Paso del Norte (The Pass of the North) was discovered by Europeans in 1581 and later provided access for Spanish colonists.

In 1598 Don Juan de Onate and several hundred conquistadors came looking for gold. Sixty-one years later a Spanish mission was founded in what is now Juarez.

A village grew around it that became an important stop on the Camino Real, or Royal Road, which connected Chihuahua City and Santa Fe, and later became the first road in North America—the Chihuahua-Santa Fe Trail.

The US Army established Fort Bliss in 1848 to defend the area against Apache attacks. Two stagecoach lines were established during the California Gold Rush of 1849. In 1881 the Southern Pacific Railroad opened up trade when it reached El Paso from California. For the next 40 years El Paso was an important part of the Wild West, where gunfighters, soldiers of fortune, banditos, cattle rustlers, and Texas Rangers fought.

Among the famous marshals of that time were Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and Pat Garrett.

General Black Jack Pershing’s campaign against Pancho Villa in 1916 strengthened the military presence at Fort Bliss and ended the lawless era.

Today Fort Bliss is a US Army Air Defense Center, which offers combat training for allied nations. Its museums have displays and dioramas concerning the history of air defense, and a replica of the original adobe fort.

The El Paso Zoo exhibits more than 700 animals and 200 species, and is a major attraction for west Texas, southern New Mexico and northern Mexico. El Paso also has an auto racetrack, several graceful old Spanish missions, a fascinating science center, railroad museum, and the Tigua Native American Reservation—Ysleta del Sur Pueblo—which is the oldest community in Texas. Its Border Patrol Museum offers uniform, canine, and weapon displays, and commemorates agents killed while on duty.

El Paso can be reached by car by I-10, and by bus; it has an international airport.