El Paso

El Paso, city, seat (1850) of El Paso county, extreme western Texas, U.S. It is located on the Rio Grande, there bridged to Juárez, Mexico, just south of the New Mexico line. The largest of the U.S.-Mexican border cities, it lies at the foot of the Franklin Mountains (at an elevation of 3,762 feet [1,147 metres]) below a narrow pass where the Rio Grande issues from the bare southernmost spurs of the Rocky Mountains.

The strategic site was recognized in 1598 by Juan de Oñate, colonizer of New Mexico, who called it El Paso del Norte (Spanish: “The Pass of the North”). Franciscans established the Mission Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe there in 1659; the original church stands in the central square of Juárez. Spanish survivors of the Pueblo Revolt (1680–92) took refuge there and built other missions nearby, including one at Ysleta, site of the oldest town in Texas (now in El Paso). In 1776 the settlement comprised a string of hamlets and farms inhabited by 5,000 people. Not until after 1827 did a village exist on the river’s north bank at the present site of El Paso. It became U.S. territory in 1848, when an army post was built (commemorated by the Fort Bliss Replica Museum).

The town, laid out in 1859, was on the Butterfield Stage Route to California. It grew slowly until 1881, when four railways arrived; by 1890 its population had increased more than 10-fold to 10,338. Meanders of the Rio Grande to the south resulted in border disputes in the 1860s; Mexican claims to El Chamizal, a wedge of land on the Texas side, were first filed in 1895. The dispute, which involved the relocation of the river’s channel, was finally resolved in 1963 and is commemorated in the 55-acre (22-hectare) Chamizal National Memorial (1968).

Spanish language and culture distinguish the city. Its old adobe buildings are unmistakably Mexican, yet in general appearance El Paso is a modern American metropolis. It is the commercial and financial centre for an extensive trade territory where livestock ranching, irrigated cotton farming, and mineral production are major economic activities. El Paso has a highly diversified industrial structure centring on primary metals, petroleum and gas operations, food products, and apparel. Its copper-lead custom smelter and electrolytic copper refinery processes a significant portion of the nation’s copper. Fort Bliss (home of the U.S. Army Air Defense Center), the William Beaumont General Hospital, and nearby White Sands Missile Range (in New Mexico) augment El Paso’s economy.

A port of entry and an important foreign-trade and transcontinental crossroad on several major highways, it is served by both U.S. and Mexican railroads. It is a tourist gateway to Juárez and the interior of Mexico and to scenic areas of the United States. Downtown El Paso, with its winding streets and restored adobe buildings that house restaurants and shops, is popular with visitors. The city’s attractions include the El Paso Museum of Art and the El Paso Museum of History (1974; originally the El Paso Cavalry Museum). The University of Texas at El Paso originated as the Texas State School of Mines and Metallurgy in 1913. Several of its original buildings were modeled on the Potala Palace of Lhasa, Tibet. The university sponsors the Sun Bowl, festivities held in conjunction with an annual postseason college football game. El Paso Community College opened in 1969. Inc. 1873. Pop. (2010) 649,121; El Paso Metro Area, 800,647; (2020) 678,815; El Paso Metro Area, 868,859.