Editing El Paso, Texas (section)

===Early years===

The El Paso region has had human settlement for thousands of years, as evidenced by [[Folsom point]]s from [[hunter-gatherer]]s found at [[Hueco Tanks]]. This suggests 10,000 to 12,000 years of human habitation.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/newsmedia/videos/state_park/big_bend_country/hueco_tanks.phtml|title=Hueco Tanks State Historic Site Videos Big Bend Country Region |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071122072926/http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/newsmedia/videos/state_park/big_bend_country/hueco_tanks.phtml| url-status=dead| archive-date=November 22, 2007}}</ref> The earliest known cultures in the region were maize farmers. When the [[Spanish Empire|Spanish]] arrived, the [[Manso Indians|Manso]], [[Suma people|Suma]], and [[Jumano people|Jumano]] tribes populated the area. These were subsequently incorporated into the ''[[mestizo]]'' culture, along with immigrants from central Mexico, captives from [[Comanchería]], and ''[[genízaro]]s'' of various ethnic groups. The [[Mescalero Apache]] were also present.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_17_5YR_S0801&prodType=table|title=American FactFinder Commuting Characteristics by Sex|website=factfinder.census.gov|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190228070057/https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_17_5YR_S0801&prodType=table|archive-date=February 28, 2019|url-status=dead|access-date=February 26, 2019}}</ref>

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,<ref>{{Cite book| title = El Paso Chronicles: A Record of Historical Events in El Paso, Texas | first = Leon C. | last = Metz | year = 1993 | publisher = El Paso: Mangan Press | isbn = 0-930208-32-3 }}</ref> celebrating a [[mass (liturgy)|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 [[Wattasid dynasty|Morocco]], [[Estevanico]], are thought to have crossed the Rio Grande into present-day Mexico about 75 miles south of El Paso in 1535.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Chipman |first1=Donald E. |title=Cabeza de Vaca, Álvar Núñez |url=https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/cabeza-de-vaca-lvar-nunez |website=Handbook of Texas Online |publisher=Texas State Historical Association |access-date=24 April 2021}}</ref> 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 Mexico as a result of the [[Pueblo Revolt]], until 1692, when [[Santa Fe, New Mexico|Santa Fe]] was reconquered and once again became the capital.<ref>Ramón A. Gutiérrez, ''When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away: Marriage, Sexuality, and Power in New Mexico, 1500–1846'' (Stanford University Press, 1991) p. 145</ref>

The [[Texas Revolution]] (1836) was generally not felt in the region, as the American population was small, not more than 10% of the population. However, the region was claimed by Texas as part of the treaty signed with Mexico and numerous attempts were made by Texas to bolster these claims, but the villages that consisted of what is now El Paso and the surrounding area remained essentially a self-governed community with both representatives of the Mexican and Texan governments negotiating for control until Texas irrevocably took control in 1846.<ref name="elpaso7475"/> During this interregnum, 1836–1848, Americans nonetheless continued to settle the region. As early as the mid-1840s, alongside long extant Hispanic settlements such as the Rancho de Juan María Ponce de León, Anglo-American settlers such as [[Simeon Hart]] and [[Hugh Stephenson (early settler of El Paso, Texas)|Hugh Stephenson]] had established thriving communities of American settlers owing allegiance to Texas.<ref name="elpaso7475"/> Stephenson, who had married into the local Hispanic aristocracy, established the [[Concordia Cemetery (El Paso, Texas)|Rancho de San José de la Concordia]], which became the nucleus of Anglo-American and Hispanic settlement within the limits of modern-day El Paso, in 1844: the Republic of Texas, which claimed the area, wanted a chunk of the Santa Fe trade. During the [[Mexican–American War]], the [[Battle of El Bracito]] was fought nearby on Christmas Day, 1846. The [[Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo]] effectively made the settlements on the north bank of the river part of the US, separate from Old El Paso del Norte on the Mexican side.<ref name="elpaso7475">''El Paso, A Borderlands History'', by W.H. Timmons, pp. 74, 75</ref> The present New Mexico–Texas boundary placing El Paso on the Texas side was drawn in the [[Compromise of 1850]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Drexler |first=Ken |title=Research Guides: Compromise of 1850: Primary Documents in American History: Introduction |url=https://guides.loc.gov/compromise-1850/introduction |access-date=2022-12-03 |website=guides.loc.gov |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-06-28 |title=Compromise of 1850 (1850) |url=https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/compromise-of-1850 |access-date=2022-12-03 |website=National Archives |language=en}}</ref>

[[File:Franklin (El Paso), Texas.jpg|thumb|Adobe buildings in "Franklin" c. 1850. Thought to be one of the earliest depictions of the settlement]]

El Paso remained the largest settlement in New Mexico as part of the Republic of Mexico until its cession to the U.S. in 1848, when the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo specified the border was to run north of El Paso De Norte around the [[Ciudad Juárez Cathedral]] which became part of the state of Chihuahua.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) |url=https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/treaty-of-guadalupe-hidalgo |access-date=February 7, 2023 |website=U.S. National Archives, Milestone Documents|date=June 25, 2021 }}</ref>

[[El Paso County, Texas|El Paso County]] was established in March 1850, with [[San Elizario, Texas|San Elizario]] as the first county seat.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/el-paso-tx#:~:text=El%20Paso%20County%20was%20established,largely%20ignoring%20history%20and%20topography. |title=El Paso |date=September 21, 2023|website=Handbook of Texas|access-date=December 15, 2023}}</ref> The United States Senate fixed a boundary between Texas and New Mexico at the 32nd parallel, thus largely ignoring history and topography. A military post called the "Post opposite El Paso" (meaning opposite El Paso del Norte, across the Rio Grande) was established in 1849 on Coons' Rancho beside the settlement of Franklin, which became the nucleus of the future El Paso, Texas; after the army left in 1851, the rancho went into default and was repossessed; in 1852, a post office was established on the rancho bearing the name El Paso as an example of [[cross-border town naming]] until El Paso del Norte was renamed Juarez in 1888. After changing hands twice more, the El Paso company was set up in 1859 and bought the property, hiring [[Anson Mills]] to survey and lay out the town, thus forming the current street plan of downtown El Paso.<ref name="handbook">{{Handbook of Texas | id=hde01 | name=El Paso, Texas}}</ref>

In ''Beyond the Mississippi'' (1867), [[Albert D. Richardson]], traveling to California via coach, described El Paso as he found it in late 1859: <blockquote>

The Texan town of El Paso had four hundred inhabitants, chiefly Mexicans. Its businessmen were Americans, but Spanish was the prevailing language. All the features were Mexican: low, flat adobe buildings, shading cottonwoods under which dusky, smoking women and swarthy children sold fruit, vegetables, and bread; habitual gambling universal, from the boys' game of pitching ''quartillas'' (three-cent coins) to the great saloons where huge piles of silver dollars were staked at monte. In this little village, a hundred thousand dollars often changed hands in a single night through the potent agencies of Monte and poker. There were only two or three American ladies, and most of the whites kept Mexican mistresses. All goods were brought on wagons from the Gulf of Mexico and sold at an advance of three or four hundred percent on Eastern prices.<ref name="Richardson 1867 238">{{Cite book|last=Richardson|first=Albert D.|title=Beyond the Mississippi : From the Great River to the Great Ocean|publisher=American Publishing Co.|year=1867|location=Hartford, Conn.|pages=238}}</ref></blockquote>

<blockquote>From hills overlooking the town, the eye takes in a charming picture—a far-stretching valley, enriched with orchards, vineyards, and cornfields, through which the river traces a shining pathway. Across it appears the flat roofs and cathedral towers of the old Mexican El Paso; still further, dim misty mountains melt into the blue sky.<ref name="Richardson 1867 238"/></blockquote>

[[File:El Paso c1880.jpg|thumb|El Paso, c. 1880|alt=|left]]

During the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] military forces were in the area until it was captured by the Union [[California Column]] in August 1862. It was then headquarters for the [[5th Regiment California Volunteer Infantry]] from August 1863 until December 1864.<ref>{{Cite book |editor-first=Richard H. |editor-last=Orton |url=https://archive.org/details/recordscaliforn00ortogoog |title=Records of California Men in the War of the Rebellion 1861 to 1867 |publisher=Adjutant General's Office |location=Sacramento |year=1890 |page=[https://archive.org/details/recordscaliforn00ortogoog/page/n680 672] |access-date=July 1, 2010}}</ref>[[File:Old map-El Paso-1886.jpg|thumb|Map of the city in 1886|alt=|left]]

After the Civil War's conclusion, the town's population began to grow as white Texans continued to move into the villages and soon became the majority. El Paso itself, incorporated in 1873, encompassed the small area of communities that had developed along the river. In the 1870s, a population of 23 non-Hispanic Whites and 150 Hispanics was reported.<ref name="Elpasotexas.gov">{{cite web|url=http://www.elpasotexas.gov/downtown/history.htm#1_6 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090705114058/http://www.elpasotexas.gov/downtown/history.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 5, 2009 |title=elpasonext – Downtown El Paso History |publisher=Elpasotexas.gov |access-date=July 1, 2010 }}</ref> With the arrival of the [[Southern Pacific Railroad|Southern Pacific]], [[Texas and Pacific Railway|Texas and Pacific]], and [[Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe]] railroads in 1881, the population boomed to 10,000 by the 1890 census, with many Anglo-Americans, recent immigrants, old Hispanic settlers, and recent arrivals from Mexico. The location of El Paso and the arrival of these more wild newcomers caused the city to become a violent and wild [[boomtown]] known as the "Six-shooter Capital" because of its lawlessness.<ref name="handbook"/> Indeed, prostitution and gambling flourished until World War I when the [[Department of the Army]] pressured El Paso authorities to crack down on vice (thus "benefitting" vice in neighboring Ciudad Juárez). With the suppression of the vice trade and in consideration of the city's geographic position, the city continued into developing as a premier manufacturing, transportation, and retail center of the U.S. Southwest.<ref name="Elpasotexas.gov"/>