Before

      explorers…

For hundred of years the natives in the area, including the Tigua Indians inhabited the land and lived in harmony with nature.  Today, the Tigua Indians are one of only two Indian groups in Texas officially recognized by the U.S. government as a tribe. 

                1581

Spanish explorers approaching the Rio Grande from the south, in the colonial period viewed two mountain ranges rising out of the desert with a deep gorge between. This spot rested at the foothills of the Franklin Mountains, which they named El Paso del Norte the Pass of the North.  This is the first documented encounter Europeans had with the area soon to be called El Paso.

                     1598

Juan de Oñate led a colonizing expedition on April 30, where he took formal possession of the entire territory drained by the Rio Grande and brought Spanish civilization to the Pass of the North.

                     1659

García de San Francisco founded Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe Mission, which still stands in downtown Ciudad Juárez, the oldest structure in the El Paso area.

               1680

The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 sent Spanish colonists and the Tigua Indians of Northern New Mexico fleeing southward to take refuge at the Pass. The revolt was led by a visionary shaman named Popé.  Before then the many different Pueblo villages had never acted in concert (and never would again).  In total secrecy they coordinated an attack, killing 401 settlers and soldiers and routing the rulers in Santa Fe.

               1845

El Paso officially became part of the United States when Texas joined the Union in 1845, and to protect the settlers from marauding Apaches, the first U.S. Army post is created at the "Pass" in 1848.  On November 7^th 1848, the War Department ordered the establishment of a post in El Paso thus the military post Fort Bliss is established.

              1883

Between 1776, to the early 1880s, the population in the El Paso region doubled in size from 5000 to over 10,000 residents. This dramatic growth was due in large part to the introduction of four railroads in the El Paso valley in 1881.

One of the minority groups who aided in the achievement of the railroad were the Chinese.  El Paso County did count at least 225 Chinese in 1883 and, at the turn of the century, did have something of a small Chinatown.  Here, intermarriage and illegal immigration accounted for most of the families. Legal immigration had been shut down by the Exclusion Law of 1882.

This was also the time of El Paso's rambunctious era of gunfighters, cattle rustlers, saloons, famous marshals and Texas Rangers - the Wild West, which fueled much of the racial violence. 

              1913

The College of Mines, now The University of Texas at El Paso, was chartered by the State of Texas.  El Paso urbanized quickly and prosperously, and soon became known as "The Best Lighted City in Texas."

               1967

The Chamizal Agreement that verified the boundary and the exact course of the Rio Grande through the city was signed in 1967.  The Chamizal dispute was a border conflict over about 600 acres on the U.S. Mexican border between El Paso and Cindad Juarez Chinhuahua. The agreement awarded to Mexico 366 acres of the Chamizal area and 71 acres east of the adjacent Cordova Island.

              1979

The Franklin Mountain State Park was created in 1979. It is the largest urban park in the United States and features exceptional geologic history and the highest structural point in Texas.  Franklin Mountains State Park offers 118 miles of trails as well as a scenic backdrop for elegant homes.

             1993

The turn of the century signals the period of gambling, this is legalized with the opening of Speaking Rock Casino.

             2002

Gambling leaves El Paso when the state declares gambling in Texas is illegal and shuts down Speaking Rock Casino but remains alive and well at nearby Sunland Park Racetrack & Casino, which is located a footstep across the Texas border in New Mexico.