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EL PASO, TEXAS - USA
El Paso is a city located in El Paso County, Texas, United States.
As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 679,622. El Paso
is second to San Diego, California in size of all United States cities on
the border with Mexico and lies opposite Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico.
The two cities form a binational metropolitan area of approximately two
million people, divided by the Rio Grande.
El Paso is the seat of the University of Texas at El Paso (founded 1913 as
the Texas College of Mines, received university status 1967). Fort Bliss, a
major United States Army installation, lies to the east and northeast of the
city, extending north up to the White Sands Missile Range. The Franklin
Mountains extend into El Paso from the north and nearly divide the city into
two sections.
El Paso is served by El Paso International Airport, I-10 and Mexico
Highway 45.
History
Archeological evidence at the Keystone Wetlands and Hueco Tanks sites
indicates thousands of years of human settlement within the El Paso region.
The Manso and Suma Indians were identified as present by the earliest
Spanish explorers. Nothing is known of these people's origin or ultimate
fate.
After the settling of El Paso del Norte, on the south bank of the Rio
Grande, the present-day city of El Paso was simply the Ponce de León Ranch,
on the north side of the river. American settlers began drifting into El
Paso, to stay for good after the founding of the Texas Republic and the
Mexican Cession.
A trading post called Franklin was established during this time. El Paso was
platted in 1859, but grew slowly until the railroads came in 1881. The
population had grown to 10,000 by the 1890 census.
During the late 1880s and 1890s, El Paso acquired a reputation as a lawless
"wild west" town. The most notorious local figure was John Wesley Hardin,
killed in an 1894 El Paso gunfight. Prostitution and gambling flourished
until World War I, when the Department of the Army pressured El Paso
authorities to crack down on vice. Many of these activities continued to
flourish in neighboring Ciudad Juárez, especially during the Prohibition,
when bars and saloons on the Mexican side flourished.
The Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) began in 1910, and Ciudad Juárez was the
focus of intense fighting. Occasionally, stray shots killed civilians on the
El Paso side. El Paso became a center of intrigue as various exiled leaders
including Victoriano Huerta and (for a time) Pancho Villa were seen in the
city. General John Joseph Pershing was stationed at Fort Bliss, and mounted
his ill fated expedition against Pancho Villa after the infamous raid on
Columbus, New Mexico on March 9, 1916. The cavalry under Pershing were paid
in gold, in competition with Pancho Villa, who offered $50 per machine gun.
(When World War I began, Pershing's cavalry had to remain in the Army for
the duration of the war, and were no longer paid in gold.)
Perhaps the most enduring legacy of the revolution era was the arrival of
thousands of Mexican refugees, whose descendants formed the nucleus of the
Chicano community that emerged in later decades.
A presidential visit to the state of Texas was first suggested to President
John F. Kennedy by his Vice President, Lyndon Baines Johnson and Texas
Governor John Bowen Connally, Sr. while all three men were together in a
meeting on June 6, 1963, less than six months before the Kennedy
assassination in Dallas, Texas. President Kennedy decided to embark on the
November 1963 trip with three basic goals in mind: the president wanted to
help raise more Democratic Party presidential campaign fund contributions;
he wanted to begin his quest for re-election in November, 1964; and, because
the Kennedy-Johnson ticket had barely won Texas in 1960 President Kennedy
wanted to help mend political fences among several leading Texas Democratic
party members who appeared to be fighting politically amongst themselves,
which included Johnson/Connally fighting with Texas Senator Ralph Yarborough.
From World War II until the 1980s, El Paso grew rapidly. The expansion of
Fort Bliss from a frontier post to a major Cold War military center brought
in thousands of soldiers, dependents, and retirees. The industrial economy
was dominated by copper smelting, oil refining, and the proliferation of low
wage industries (particularly garment making), which drew thousands of
Mexican immigrants. New housing subdivisions were built, expanding El Paso
far to the west, northeast and east of its original core areas.
Since 1990, the local economy has been adversely affected by competition
with low wage labor abroad, and the closure of the main copper smelter. The
passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement has been a mixed blessing,
with local transportation, retail, and service firms expanding, but with the
accelerated loss of many industrial jobs. El Paso is very sensitive to
changes in the Mexican economy and the regulation of cross border traffic;
the Mexican peso devaluation of late 1994 and the temporary closing of the
ports of entry and subsequent stringent controls of cross border traffic
after the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack were felt strongly in El Paso.
Geography and Climate
El Paso is located at 31°47'25" North, 106°25'24" West (31.790208,
-106.423242)1. The city is at 3750 feet above sea level. The mountain peaks
in El Paso reach 7200 feet above sea level.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of
648.9 km˛ (250.5 mi˛). 645.1 km˛ (249.1 mi˛) of it is land and 3.8 km˛ (1.5
mi˛) of it is water. The total area is 0.58% water.
The Franklin Mountains extend into El Paso from the north and nearly divide
the city into two sections. The Rio Grande Rift lies beneath the Pass,
through which the Rio Grande flows, as evidenced by an extinct volcano, Mt.
Cristo Rey just to the west of the city, on the New Mexico side of the Rio
Grande. Other volcanic features include Kilbourne hole and Hunt's hole,
which are Maar volcanic craters 30 miles west of the Franklin Mountains. El
Paso is surrounded by the Chihuahuan Desert, the easternmost section of the
Basin and Range Region. Temperatures average from a high of 56°F (13° C) and
a low of 29°F (-2° C) in January to a high of 96°F (35.5° C) and low of 68°F
(20° C) in August.
Rainfall averages 8.81 inches or 22.28 cm per annum. Most precipitation
occurs during the monsoon occurring from late June through September. In
most years rainfall is scant during the rest of the year.
Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there are 563,662 people, 182,063 households, and
141,098 families residing in the city. The population density is 873.7/km˛
(2,263.0/mi˛). There are 193,663 housing units at an average density of
300.2/km˛ (777.5/mi˛). The racial makeup of the city is 73.28% White, 3.12%
African American, 0.82% Native American, 1.12% Asian, 0.10% Pacific Islander,
18.15% from other races, and 3.40% from two or more races. 76.62% of the
population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There are 182,063 households, out of which 42.4% have children under the age
of 18 living with them, 54.6% are married couples living together, 18.5%
have a female householder with no husband present, and 22.5% are non-families.
19.2% of all households are made up of individuals and 7.2% have someone
living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is
3.07 and the average family size is 3.54.
In the city the population is spread out with 31.0% under the age of 18,
10.0% from 18 to 24, 29.1% from 25 to 44, 19.2% from 45 to 64, and 10.7% who
are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 31 years. For every 100
females there are 90.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there
are 85.0 males.
The median income for a household in the city is $32,124, and the median
income for a family is $35,432. Males have a median income of $28,989 versus
$21,540 for females. The per capita income for the city is $14,388. 22.2% of
the population and 19.0% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the
total people living in poverty, 29.8% are under the age of 18 and 17.7% are
65 or older.
Notable Denizens
Jimmy Carl Black
Bobby Fuller
Eddie Guerrero
John Wesley Hardin
Don Haskins
Phil Ochs
Sandra Day O'Connor
Debbie Reynolds
Travelers to Juárez
Mountain time zone in Juárez
One curiosity about El Paso and Juárez is that it was possible to celebrate
New Year's twice in the same evening, when Juárez was on Central time and El
Paso was on Mountain time. Both cities are now on Mountain time.
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