1881 and 1882 were momentous years for the El Paso-Juarez region. From the first days of the Spanish in the Southwest, this was a major crossroads—the natural route from Mexico City to the northern frontier, the southern route from east to west. For well over 350 years, you traveled by shank's mare or astraddle an animal or by wagons or stagecoaches drawn by draft animals. All of this changed within the space of 2 years as railroads arrived first from the west and then from the north, east, and finally, the south. At long last, not only could passengers ride with relative comfort and dispatch, but the goods of commerce rode the rails with a speed previously unimaginable.
As a direct result, the area's first major industry appeared in
1887. That was the year that El Paso Smelting Works (later part of ASARCO) opened its
smelter and refinery, utilizing the railroads to transport copper ores from Mexico,
Arizona, and New Mexico and to bring in coal—the fuel that ran everything. The frontier
no longer meant isolation.
Contributor: Arthur H. Harris, Laboratory for Environmental Biology, Centennial Museum, University of Texas at El Paso.
Desert Diary is a joint production of the Centennial Museum and KTEP National Public Radio at the University of Texas at El Paso.