El Paso: The Town
Downtown El Paso holds surprisingly little to see apart from a couple of passable art museums; what character it has continues to be shaped by the US-Mexico border . In times past outlaws and exiles from either side of the border would take refuge across the river, and today's traffic remains considerable and not entirely uncontroversial. The border itself, the Rio Grande, has caused its share of disagreements: the river changed course quite often in the 1800s, and it was not until the 1960s, when it was run through a concrete channel, that it was made permanent. An attractive park, the Chamizal National Memorial (daily 8am-5pm; free), on the east side of downtown off Paisano Drive, was built to commemorate the settling of the border dispute and provides a pleasant place to picnic. The Border Patrol Museum , 4315 Transmountain Rd at Hwy-54 (Tues-Sun 9am-5pm; free), is a small but engrossing museum explaining the work of the patrollers and highlights the ingenuity of smugglers. The Cordova Bridge heads across the river into Mexico, where there's a larger park and a number of museums; there are no formalities, so long as you have a multiple-entry visa for the US and don't travel more than twenty or so miles south of the border. The El Paso-Juarez "Border Jumper" trolley departs hourly from the visitor center; the $12 round-trip ticket is steep but does provide a pretty comprehensive tour of the city.Although El Paso is predominantly Hispanic, there is also a substantial popu-lation of Tigua Indians , a displaced Pueblo tribe, based in a reservation (complete with the almost statutory casino ) on Socorro Road, southeast of downtown. The reservation's arts and crafts center is open to the public, selling pottery and textiles. Adjacent to the reservation, the simple Ysleta del Sur , the oldest mission in the United States, marks the beginning of a mission trail (information office tel 915/534-0677, ) running alongside scruffy cotton, alfalfa, chili, onion and pecan fields. Two miles east, the Socorro mission , moved from its original seventeenth-century site on the river, shows an unusually heavy Native American influence; the crenelation on either side of the bell tower represents a Tigua rain god. Still an active church, inside it is relatively unadorned, with hand-carved ceiling beams and lattices; major renovation efforts, replacing crumbling concrete, will continue through 2003. Off the beaten track, six miles further along the trail, the cathedral-style San Elizario was the chapel for the Spanish military, with whitewashed walls, jewel-colored stained glass and a decorative tin ceiling. Splendid views of three states and two countries can be seen from the southern rim of the Franklin Mountains, either from Scenic Drive or from the vertigo-inducing Wyler Aerial Tramway (summer Mon & Thurs noon-6pm, Fri-Sun noon-9pm; rest of year Mon, Thurs & Fri noon-6pm, weekends noon-9pm; $7; tel 915/566-6622, ), which climbs 946 feet to Wyler Observatory.
In Concordia cemetery , just northwest of the I-10 and Hwy-54 intersection, a shambling collection of crumbling stones and plain wooden crosses commemorates assorted pioneers and desperados. The grave of John Wesley Hardin , much romanticized gunslinger, is marked by a crooked headstone northwest of the Chinese graveyard, a section walled off since the Chinese built the railroads in the 1880s. El Paso is also the home of Tony Lama, makers of top-quality cowboy boots , available at substantial discounts at three outlets across town.
Copyright Rough Guides Ltd as trustee for its authors. Published by Rough Guides. All rights reserved. The Rough Guides name is a trademark of Rough Guides Ltd.
Copyright © 2006 United States.biz
