City at the Pass of the North - History of El Paso, Texas

El Paso, with its rich Hispanic-Anglo culture, is as spicy a mix as the hot sauce called pica de gallo.

The storied Rio Grande-Great River-enters Texas above El Paso beneath the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. From this point, where the elevation varies from 7,000 to 3,700 feet above sea level in downtown El Paso, the river flows all the way to semi-tropical Brownsville and beyond. Though El Paso has more days of sunshine than almost any city in America, it's possible that it could be snowing in El Paso while down in Brownsville, a "Winter Texan" in a short-sleeved shirt could be playing golf amid palm trees.

The Franklin Mountains bring up the southern end of the Continental Divide. Beyond the valley of the Rio Grande, in Mexico, another chain of mountains rises from the desert. It was this natural gap in North America's high backbone that gave El Paso its name when Spanish explorers first came to the area in the early 1600s. They called it El Paso del Norte-the Pass of the North.

The first settlement at this point along the Rio Grande was along its southern bank, in what is now Mexico. But at the time, the Rio Grande was merely a source of water, not a border between countries. The land along both sides of the river first was claimed by Spain and later, following the revolution that created Mexico, by that new republic. In 1827, Mexican businessman Ponce de Leon began ranching on the north side of the river in what is now downtown El Paso, Texas.

After the Mexican War, the north side of the Rio Grande became part of the United States -- attached to the Territory of New Mexico. Late in 1846, Benjamin Franklin Coons leased Ponce's old ranch and gave the place his middle name. The California gold rush and the establishment of Fort Bliss in 1849 helped Franklin grow into a small community. A year later, Franklin and the area around it became part of Texas. In 1859, its name was changed to El Paso.

When the first southern transcontinental railroad went through El Paso in 1882, its future at a city was assured. Today, though passenger trains still travel through the Pass of the North, it also is a major vehicular and aviation hub.

Geographically, El Paso is closer to the major cities of New Mexico than it is significant Texas cities, including the capital in Austin. Culturally, too, El Paso is as much New Mexican as Texan. With an Hispanic population of some 70 percent, El Paso today is truly an international city, one of the principal gateways, thanks to the North American Free Trade Alliance, to our sister republic to the south.