El Paso

Sister cities

• Chihuahua City
• Ciudad Juárez
• Jerez de la Frontera
• Torreón
• Zacatecas

History

The El Paso region has had human settlement for thousands of years, as evidenced by Folsom points from hunter-gatherers found at Hueco Tanks. This suggests 10,000 to 12,000 years of human habitation. The earliest known cultures in the region were maize farmers. When the Spanish arrived, the Manso, Suma, and Jumano tribes populated the area. These were subsequently incorporated into the mestizo culture, along with immigrants from central Mexico, captives from Comanchería, and genízaros of various ethnic groups. The Mescalero Apache were also present. The Chamuscado and Rodríguez Expedition trekked through present-day El Paso and forded the Rio Grande where they visited the land that is present-day New Mexico in 1581–1582. The expedition was led by Francisco Sánchez, called "El Chamuscado", and Fray Agustín Rodríguez, the first Spaniards known to have walked along the Rio Grande and visited the Pueblo Indians since Francisco Vásquez de Coronado 40 years earlier. Spanish explorer Don Juan de Oñate was born in 1550 in Zacatecas, Zacatecas, Mexico, and was the first New Spain (Mexico) explorer known to have rested and stayed 10 days by the Rio Grande near El Paso, in 1598, celebrating a Thanksgiving Mass there on April 30, 1598. Four survivors of the Narváez expedition, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Alonso del Castillo Maldonado, Andrés Dorantes de Carranza, and an enslaved native of Morocco, Estevanico, are thought to have crossed the Rio Grande into present-day Mexico about 75 miles south of El Paso in 1535. El Paso del Norte (present-day Ciudad Juárez) was founded on the south bank of the Río Bravo del Norte (Rio Grande), in 1659 by Fray Garcia de San Francisco. In 1680, the small village of El Paso became the temporary base for Spanish governance of the territory of New…

Geography

El Paso is located at the intersection of three states (Chihuahua, New Mexico, and Texas) and two countries (Mexico and the U.S.). It is the only major Texas city in the Mountain Time Zone. Ciudad Juarez was once in the Central Time Zone, but both cities are now on Mountain Time. El Paso is closer to the capital cities of four other states: Phoenix, Arizona ( away); Santa Fe, New Mexico ( away); Ciudad Chihuahua, Chihuahua, ( away), and Hermosillo, Sonora ( away)—than it is to the capital of its own state, Austin ( away). It is closer to Los Angeles, California ( away) than it is to Orange, Texas ( away), the easternmost town in the same state as this city. El Paso is located within the Chihuahuan Desert, the easternmost section of the Basin and Range Region. The Franklin Mountains extend into El Paso from the north and nearly divide the city into two sections; the west side forms the beginnings of the Mesilla Valley, and the east side expands into the desert and lower valley. They connect in the central business district at the southern end of the mountain range. The city's elevation is above sea level. North Franklin Mountain is the highest peak in the city at above sea level. The peak can be seen from in all directions. Additionally, this mountain range is home to the famous natural red-clay formation, the Thunderbird, from which the local Coronado High School gets its mascot's name. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of . The Franklin Mountains State Park, one of the largest urban parks in the United States, lies entirely in El Paso, extending from the north and dividing the city into several sections along with Fort Bliss and El Paso International Airport. The Rio Grande Rift, which passes around the southern end of the…

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• White-winged Dove

  Zenaida asiatica (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  11,551
• House Finch

  Haemorhous mexicanus (P.L.Statius Müller, 1776) · Aves
  9,467
• Great-tailed Grackle

  Quiscalus mexicanus (Gmelin, 1788) · Aves
  8,216
• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  7,830
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  7,249
• Rock Pigeon

  Columba livia J.F.Gmelin, 1789 · Aves
  6,641
• Northern Mockingbird

  Mimus polyglottos (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  6,150
• Verdin

  Auriparus flaviceps (Sundevall, 1850) · Aves
  5,312

Largest nearby schools

• FRANKLIN H S
  High · EL PASO · 3,149 students · 17.9:1 ratio
• CORONADO H S
  High · EL PASO · 2,391 students · 17.3:1 ratio
• EASTWOOD H S
  High · EL PASO · 2,381 students · 16.5:1 ratio
• BEL AIR H S
  High · EL PASO · 1,839 students · 15.3:1 ratio
• CHAPIN H S
  High · EL PASO · 1,718 students · 16.5:1 ratio
• DON HASKINS PK-8
  Elementary · EL PASO · 1,674 students · 16.4:1 ratio
• PARKLAND H S
  High · EL PASO · 1,674 students · 15.5:1 ratio
• CANUTILLO H S
  High · EL PASO · 1,642 students · 16.1:1 ratio

Most recent

• M 2.8 — 2020-10-09
  6 km NE of Mesquite, New Mexico
• M 2.8 — 2015-02-15
  34 km ESE of Pecan Park, New Mexico
• M 2.9 — 2015-02-08
  35 km ESE of Ventura, New Mexico
• M 3 — 2015-02-08
  35 km W of Fairacres, New Mexico
• M 2.6 — 2015-02-08
  38 km ESE of Pecan Park, New Mexico
• M 3 — 2015-02-08
  36 km E of Pecan Park, New Mexico