As Spaniards approached the Rio Grande from the south in the sixteenth century, they viewed two mountain ranges rising out of the desert with a deep chasm between that offered a ford of the river. This site they named El Paso del Norte (the Pass of the North), which became the future location of two border cities - Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico on the south or right bank of the Rio Grande, and El Paso, Texas, on the opposite side of the river. Since the sixteenth century the pass has been a continental crossroads, as the Camino Real del Tierra Adentro, or Royal Road of the Interior, developed through El Paso del Norte as a north-south route and remained a prominent route during the Spanish and Mexican periods.

The El Paso area was inhabited for centuries by various Indian groups before the Spaniards came. The first Europeans in all probability were Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and his three companions. These survivors of an unsuccessful Spanish expedition to Florida passed through the El Paso area in 1535 or 1536 as part of their eight-year journey through much of present-day Texas and Northern Mexico, though their exact route is debated by historians. Several years later, in 1540-42, an expedition under Francisco Vázquez de Coronado explored an enormous part of what is now the American Southwest. The first party of Spaniards that certainly saw the Pass of the North was the Rodríguez-Sánchez expedition of 1581, marking the beginning of 400 years of history in the El Paso area. This was followed by the Espejo-Beltrán expedition of 1582 and the historic colonizing expedition under Juan de Oñate, who, on April 30, 1598, in a ceremony at a site near that of present San Elizario, took formal possession of the entire territory drained by the Río del Norte (the Rio Grande). This act, called La Toma, or "the claiming," brought Spanish civilization to the Pass of the North and laid the foundations of more than two centuries of Spanish rule over a vast area.

In the late 1650s Fray García founded the mission of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe on the south bank of the Rio Grande; it still stands in downtown Ciudad Juárez. The Pueblo Indian Revolt of 1680 sent Spanish colonists and Tigua Indians of New Mexico fleeing southward to take refuge in El Paso del Norte, transplanting the names of New Mexico river pueblos, including La Isleta and Socorro, to the El Paso area. On October 12, 1680, midway between the Spanish settlement of Santísimo Sacramento and the Indian settlement of San Antonio, the first Mass in Texas was celebrated at a site near that of present Ysleta, which was placed on what is now the Texas side by the shifting river in 1829; Ysleta thus has a claim to being the oldest town in Texas. By 1682 five settlements had been founded in a chain along the south bank of the Rio Grande.

By the middle of the eighteenth century about 5,000 people lived in the El Paso area-Spaniards, mestizos and Indians-forming the largest complex of population on the Spanish northern frontier. A large dam and a series of acequias (irrigation ditches) encouraged flourishing agriculture. A large number of vineyards produced fine wine and brandy.

During the Civil War most of the El Paso pioneers were overwhelmingly sympathetic to the South. Although Confederate forces occupied Fort Bliss in 1861, the tide began to turn in favor of the Union cause the following year, and in August the Stars and Stripes was raised once again over Fort Bliss. The local Southern sympathizers eventually received presidential pardons, but some battled for years before they recovered their properties.

Most authorities agree that the arrival of the railroads in 1881 and 1882 was the single most significant event in El Paso history, as it transformed a sleepy, dusty little adobe village of several hundred inhabitants into a flourishing frontier community. As El Paso became a western boomtown, it also became "Six Shooter Capital" and "Sin City," where scores of saloons, dance halls, gambling establishments, and houses of prostitution lined the main streets. In the 1890s reform-minded citizens conducted a campaign to curb El Paso's most visible forms of vice and lawlessness, and in 1905 the city finally enacted ordinances closing houses of gambling and prostitution.

After 1900 El Paso began to shed its frontier image and develop as a modern municipality and significant industrial, commercial, and transportation center. Industries have included smelting, agriculture, refineries, and tourism. El Paso saw years of violence during the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1920, when revolutionaries overthrew the Mexican oligarchy. For more than 130 years Fort Bliss has played a significant role in local, national, and international affairs, and the relationship between the city and the post has always been close.

A major characteristic of border-town El Paso is its special relationship with Mexico in general and Ciudad Juárez in particular. Historic developments such as the Taft-Díaz meeting of 1909; the taking of Ciudad Juárez by the revolutionary forces of Francisco I. Madero in 1911; the activities of Francisco (Pancho) Villa, followed by Gen. John J. Pershing's punitive expedition of 1916; the immigration of Mexican families, rich and poor, during and after the Mexican Revolution; the smuggling and bootlegging activities during the Prohibition era; the Chamizal dispute and its settlement in 1964; and the growing interdependence of the two cities-all attest to the unique relationship existing between El Paso and Ciudad Juárez.



Ysleta, now part of the city of El Paso, is perhaps the oldest town in Texas. The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 drove Spanish colonists, Franciscan missionaries, and Pueblo and Tigua Indians from northern New Mexico to the Paso del Norte. At a site of the south bank of the Rio Grande, some twelve miles from today's downtown El Paso, the settlement of Santisimo Sacramento - later to be called Ysleta del Sur - was established by the refugees. Temporary quarters were soon constructed. The new Ysleta del Sur ("little island of the south") was located a league and a half east of Guadalupe Mission at the site of present Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. The first Mass in the area was celebrated near Ysleta on October 12, 1680.

Work on a permanent mission did not begin until two years later when a failed re-colonization expedition to northern New Mexico by the Spanish brought additional refugees to Paso del Norte. Completed in 1692 the Spanish named the new structure Corpus Christi de la Isleta del Sur. It provided tranquil sanctuary for religious worshipers for almost the next fifty years until the flood waters of the Rio Grande washed it away in 1740. Not to be discouraged, the settlers began construction of a new structure on the same site. It was completed in 1744 and named San Antonio de la Ysleta, named for Saint Anthony, the patron saint of the Tigua Indians.

The mission's name has been changed several times, most recently to Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Between 1829 and 1831 the Rio Grande cut a new channel, which placed Ysleta on an island formed by the old and new channels. When the deepest channel became the international boundary in 1848, Ysleta became part of the United States. An election in 1880 approved incorporation, and in 1889 the town council declared Ysleta a city. After a stormy period of squabbles over water supply, land grants, limited resources, and other issues, the town government dissolved in 1895.

By an election in 1873 Ysleta replaced San Elizario as the El Paso county seat. But the coming of the railroads in 1881 changed the population center of the county, and in 1883 a strongly disputed election made El Paso the county seat. A bridge was built across the Rio Grande in 1929 linking Ysleta with Zaragosa, Chihuahua. This crossing point has been increasingly important in recent years, since the introduction of numerous maquiladoras in the area. In 1955 El Paso annexed Ysleta, although residents of the smaller town had voted against the move. The annexation was upheld by the United States Supreme Court. Ysleta Independent School District, under a 1953 law, was allowed to retain its identity. The Tiguas, who helped the United States military as scouts during the Indian wars, were recognized as a tribe by the state of Texas in 1967 and by the United States Congress in 1968. As a result, they have established a housing area and various business enterprises on their reservation in the oldest part of Ysleta.