El Paso, Texas

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El Paso
Nickname : The Sun City
El Paso Skyline2.jpg
Seal of El Paso
seal 		Flag of El Paso
flag
Location in Texas
ElPaso County ElPaso.svg
Basic data
Foundation : 1659
State : United States
State : Texas
County : El Paso County
Coordinates : 31 ° 47 ′  N , 106 ° 29 ′  W Coordinates: 31 ° 47 ′  N , 106 ° 29 ′  W
Time zone : Mountain ( UTC − 7 / −6 )
Inhabitants :
-  Metropolitan Area :		 682,669 (as of July 1, 2018)
840,785 (as of July 1, 2018)
Population density : 1,058.2 inhabitants per km 2
Area : 648.8 km 2  (approx. 251 mi 2 ) of
which 645.1 km 2  (approx. 249 mi 2 ) are land
Height : 1140 m
Postcodes : 79901-79938
Area code : +1 915
FIPS : 48-24000
GNIS ID : 1380946
Website : www.elpasotexas.gov
Mayor : Dee Margo
ElPaso-Juarez-EO.jpg
Satellite image

El Paso is the sixth largest city in Texas and the administrative seat of the El Paso County of the same name . In the statistics of the US Census Bureau , El Paso ranks 19th in the list of major US cities. The commercial, university and garrison town in the far west of Texas on the border with New Mexico and Mexico had in 2018 an estimated 682,669 inhabitants.

Together with the surrounding communities and its Mexican sister city Ciudad Juárez with around 1.3 million inhabitants on the southern bank of the Rio Grande , it forms a metropolitan complex of around 2.0 million inhabitants.

El Paso is the seat of the Diocese of El Paso .

Geography and infrastructure

location

El Paso is located 1078 km northwest of Houston, 909 km southwest of Dallas and 1142 km south of Denver on the southernmost foothills of the Rocky Mountains - the Franklin Mountains . The city is located in the westernmost tip of Texas and thus on the borders with Mexico and the US state New Mexico. The Rio Grande flows around El Paso from North Northwest Coming to South and Southeast side, here and in the further course forms the border between the United States and the Mexican state of Chihuahua .

Transport links

The city is by the leading in west-east direction important Interstate 10 ( Los Angeles - New Orleans - Jacksonville (Florida) ), which runs partly near the border with Mexico , and which in the north over Las Cruces (New Mexico) after Buffalo (Wyoming) Interstate 25 is conveniently connected to the US highway network.

El Paso is connected to the rail network via several routes as a railway node, which means that freight traffic uses the city as an important transshipment point. In contrast, passenger transport by rail only plays a subordinate role.

The sister city of Ciudad Juárez in Mexico can be reached via three road crossings and one rail crossing. Pedestrian traffic, which is very important for the economy of the two cities, is handled via the road bridges.

With the El Paso International Airport , the city has an important commercial airport for the southwest of the USA. Some of the larger US airlines fly to El Paso, including Southwest Airlines , Delta Air Lines, and Continental Airlines . In addition, Federal Express ( FedEx ) uses the airport as an air freight center.

The Biggs Army Airfield , located directly north of the airport, has one of the longest runways in the United States at 4,131 m.

A tram has been running in El Paso again since November 9, 2018 .

Geology and climate

Due to its location in the middle of the Chihuahua Desert with a hot, dry climate, El Paso enjoys hot summers with little rainfall and mild winters. The maximum temperatures in the high summer period in June and July reach values ​​around 40 ° C. The historical maximum temperature was reached in 1995 with 45.5 ° C. From July to September the city has a sustained weather period in which significant amounts of rain can fall due to the frequent, sometimes violent, summer thunderstorms. This is also the time when the city receives most of its annual average rainfall of around 220mm.

The winter period is relatively mild with temperatures rarely dropping below freezing. Snow is seldom observed, but heavy snowfalls have been recorded in the past, which usually leads to sometimes considerable disabilities in the city.

Apart from the high temperatures in summer, extreme weather phenomena such as tornadoes are almost unknown in the area. However, El Paso is occasionally affected by local flooding in individual parts of the city during heavy rains. This was remedied by building appropriate rainwater retention basins and drainage channels. Due to the desert-like conditions (sparse land cover with short shrub growth, lack of water due to little rainfall) outside of the populated areas, isolated dust and sand storms can easily occur at higher wind speeds.

Overall, the population and visitors of El Paso consider the climate to be mostly pleasant. Over the year the city has an average of 302 days of sunshine, from which El Paso gets its nickname "Sun City".

El Paso, Texas
Climate diagram
J F. M. A. M. J J A. S. O N D.
 
 
10
 
13
-1
 
 
10
 
17th
1
 
 
7.4
 
21st
5
 
 
5.1
 
26th
9
 
 
6.4
 
31
14th
 
 
17th
 
36
18th
 
 
39
 
36
20th
 
 
40
 
34
19th
 
 
43
 
31
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15th
 
14th
-1
Temperature in ° C ,  precipitation in mm
Source: National Weather Service, US Dept of Commerce ; wetterkontor.de
Monthly average temperatures and rainfall for El Paso, Texas
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Max. Temperature ( ° C ) 13.4 16.8 21.1 25.9 30.6 35.8 35.6 34.2 30.6 25.8 19.1 14.2 O 25.3
Min. Temperature (° C) −1.4 1.1 4.6 8.9 13.6 17.9 20.2 19.2 16.4 9.8 3.6 −0.7 O 9.5
Precipitation ( mm ) 10.2 10.4 7.4 5.1 6.4 17.0 39.1 40.1 43.2 19.3 11.2 14.5 Σ 223.9
Hours of sunshine ( h / d ) 8.2 9.3 10.5 11.6 12.4 12.8 11.6 10.8 10.1 9.6 8.6 7.9 O 10.3
Rainy days ( d ) 2.8 2.0 1.5 0.9 1.3 2.1 5.3 5.8 4.6 3.0 2.3 2.9 Σ 34.5
Humidity ( % ) 51 42 32 27 27 30th 44 48 51 47 46 52 O 41.4
T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
13.4
−1.4
16.8
1.1
21.1
4.6
25.9
8.9
30.6
13.6
35.8
17.9
35.6
20.2
34.2
19.2
30.6
16.4
25.8
9.8
19.1
3.6
14.2
−0.7
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
N
i
e
d
e
r
s
c
h
l
a
g 		10.2
10.4
7.4
5.1
6.4
17.0
39.1
40.1
43.2
19.3
11.2
14.5
  Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

economy

The metropolitan area of ​​El Paso generated a gross domestic product of 43.9 billion US dollars in 2016, making it 90th among the metropolitan areas of the USA. The unemployment rate in the metropolitan region was 4.1 percent, which is slightly above the national average of 3.8 percent. (As of March 2018).

More than 70 Fortune 500 companies have offices in El Paso , including Hoover , Eureka, Boeing and auto parts supplier Delphi . The Raytheon concern is to be mentioned as an important arms company ; he mainly develops missile systems for the US Army. El Paso is the headquarters of Western Refining , the one on the New York Stock Exchange approved refinery is.

El Paso is a major border crossing point for goods, people and services between the United States and Mexico . As a former location of the copper-producing industry, the city today has several economic pillars. In addition to the remaining crude oil processing by refineries , these include, above all, plastics production, the textile, armaments and electronics industries, and agriculture. In the fertile lowlands of the Upper Valley and Lower Valley along the Rio Grande, fruits, vegetables, cotton and extensive walnut plantations thrive. Milk and meat production is another important factor in local agriculture.

The city's largest employers

Education

The school system in El Paso is under the supervision of three school districts, which operate numerous elementary and middle schools as well as high schools.

With approximately 20,000 students, 72% of whom are Hispanics , the University of Texas at El Paso ( UTEP ) is the university with the largest Mexican-American student body in the United States. It is therefore of great importance far beyond the borders of El Paso for obtaining a university degree for the Hispanics of the southwestern United States. The focus of education at UTEP is engineering and economics, visual arts, health care and education. The Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso campus is a division of the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center , founded in 1969.

The El Paso Community College offers many vocational qualifications.

Military site

Fort Bliss

Fort Bliss is with its Air Defense Artillery School and the associated military training area with a size of 440,000  hectares the largest air defense center in the world. In total, about 25,000 soldiers of the US Army are stationed in the extensive barracks area, which borders the city of El Paso in the northeast and is the size of a small town. As part of a restructuring and deployment decision by the US Congress (BRAC), a further 20,000 soldiers are to be transferred over the next few years. Mostly it concerns the 1st Panzer Division of the US Army, which was previously based in Germany (Wiesbaden) and Fort Riley in Kansas . With civilian staff and family members, the influx will reach around 50,000 people. In return, Fort Bliss will transfer its air defense capabilities, including several Patriot anti-aircraft missile units, to Fort Sill , Oklahoma . Nevertheless, the bottom line is that this will lead to an enormous increase in the number of troops at Fort Bliss and the population of El Paso.

German troop contingent

The German Air Force Command USA and Canada and the Tactical Training and Advanced Training Center for Anti-Aircraft Missiles of the Air Force , a foreign agency subordinate to the Air Force Support Associations Command , were located in Fort Bliss , El Paso. Here, German soldiers were trained on the Patriot anti-aircraft missile system. Parts of the training were moved to Oklahoma along with the American training. The German troop strength on site (regular soldiers and course participants) was about 600 men.

population

At over 70%, the Hispanics make up the largest proportion of El Paso's population. As in much of the southwestern United States (and Florida), a US-wide ethnic minority makes up the majority of the population here. Bilingualism is an important recruitment criterion in many areas of business and administration.

growth of population
Census Residents ± in%
1880 736 -
1890 10,338 1,304.6%
1900 15.096 46%
1910 39,279 160.2%
1920 77,560 97.5%
1930 102.421 32.1%
1940 96,810 -5.5%
1950 130,485 34.8%
1960 276,687 112%
1970 322.261 16.5%
1980 425.259 32%
1990 515,342 21.2%
2000 563,662 9.4%
2010 649.121 15.2%
1880-2000, 2010

The city is currently experiencing a rapid population increase due to its economic development, its location as a hub for goods and people traffic on the border with Mexico and the expansion of the military base Fort Bliss and Biggs Army Airfield. ¹ to 2010: census results

history

Early period and Spanish colonization

Archaeological finds in what is now El Paso indicate that the area has been settled for thousands of years. The first Spanish explorers found settlements of indigenous Indian tribes in the region. Over time, these assimilated with the new settlers or united with the nomadic Apache tribes of the surrounding area. In today's population, these origins can be found in the mestizo populations of the southwestern United States and Mexico.

In the late 1650s, Spanish missionaries built the "Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe" mission on the south bank of the Rio Bravo del Norte (now the Rio Grande ), roughly where today's Ciudad Juárez is. It still exists today in the center of modern Ciudad Juárez. In 1659, Spanish conquerors founded the place El Paso del Norte (Spanish: Pass of the North ) at this point . At that time fertile grass steppes stretched on both sides of the river and agriculture brought rich harvests of fruit, vegetables and even wine for the settlers there. Trade and settlement attempts to the north across the river often failed because of the resistance of the local tribes. In return, however, the river offered good protection against raids by the Indians.

Relatively remote, the area around El Paso del Norte was rarely the destination of travelers from the interior of Mexico. Only merchants and official envoys of the government made the trip from Mexico City, which often took several months . Nevertheless, the early settlement represented an important outpost on the Rio Bravo. From Mexico City, El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (the "royal road" ) led via El Paso del Norte to Santa Fe in the northern part of the Mexican province of Nuevo México (today's US state New Mexico ).

A revolt by the Indian tribes in 1680 significantly decimated the Spanish colonies in the north of the Provincia Nuevo México. As a result, El Paso del Norte became the fulcrum of Spanish rule over the territory north of the Rio Bravo . From here, the Spanish settlement movement under Diego de Vargas started again. In the same year, Spanish Franciscans founded the Ysleta Mission, which still exists today, in the settlement area of ​​the Tigua Indians . This settlement is possibly Texas' oldest settlement and is the nucleus of today's modern El Paso.

Independence of Mexico from Spain, American-Mexican War

American surveyors , traders and trappers had already moved to the area from the north since 1804 , but it was only after the Mexican-American War of 1849 that there were significant and permanent settlements there.

Although there was hardly any major fighting during the war, the situation had an impact on the settlement and agricultural production. A major shift in the course of the Rio Bravo led to the relocation of the settlements of Ysleta, Socorro and San Elizario to the US side of the river.

The dominant position that the merchants of the Mexican state Chihuahua had achieved over the province of Nuevo México ensured, when the Mexican constitution of 1824 was drawn up, that El Paso del Norte was annexed to the Mexican state of Chihuahua after 200 years of belonging to this province. The town's residents held their first municipal elections a year later (1825) - the first school opened in 1829.

The Texas Revolution

The Texas Revolution of 1836 had no impact on the area; until 1848 it was not considered part of the state of Texas. In view of the unclear claims of the Republic of Texas to parts of the Santa Fe trade, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ensured that the previous settlements on the north side of the river came under American sovereignty and thus completed their separation from the previous El Paso del Norte on the Mexican side has been.

Beginning of American rule and the founding of the city

The Butterfield Overland Mail stagecoach and mail rider line expanded its service to the area in 1858. A settlement on Coons' ranch called Franklin became the nucleus of today's El Paso, Texas. A year later, the land developer and General Anson Mills completed his development plan for the city of El Paso - and thus chose a name for the village that led to ongoing misunderstandings and confusion with the city of the same name on the south bank of the river for almost 40 years. This situation did not end until 1888, when "El Paso del Norte" changed its name to "Ciudad Juárez" .

Illustration from the 1850s

Establishment of the Fort Bliss Army Post

For the main article, see Fort Bliss

Several important developments influenced the area north of the Rio Bravo after 1850. In March 1850, El Paso County was established at its first seat in Elizario. The US Senate, largely disregarding historical and topographical facts, set the 32nd  parallel as the border between Texas and New Mexico. In 1854, a military camp was named "The Post opposite El Paso" ( The camp across from El Paso , meant as: on the other side of the river across from El Paso del Norte) furnished. During the Civil War, most of the southern states - including Texas - seceded from the rest of the Union and founded the Confederate States of America in 1861 . Fort Bliss , as the army post was now called, and the other garrisons of the Confederate Army along the Rio Grande were important bases of the southern states in order to secure the claim to the territory of New Mexico. These southern goals received great support from the people of El Paso. After the end of the civil war in 1865, the population began to grow. The seat of El Paso County moved from Elizario to Ysleta in the immediate vicinity of El Paso in 1877.

The wild west and the railroad

When in 1881 the construction of railroad lines, including by the companies Southern Pacific Railroad , Texas Railroad and Santa Fe Railroad , the previously small patches on the Rio Grande found connection to the larger cities, El Paso began to grow and reached the number at the 1890 census of 10,000 inhabitants. The fertile green river valley and the year-round pleasant climate of the city quickly attracted many newcomers, including cowboys, priests, Chinese railroad workers and small business owners, but also gamblers, gunslingers, thieves, murderers, crooks and prostitutes. During the following phase of the "Wild West", El Paso was given the telling and dubious nickname "Six Shooter Capital" because of its remoteness and lawlessness.

El Paso becomes the seat of El Paso County

In 1883, El Paso County's headquarters were permanently moved from Ysleta to El Paso, where it is still today. This decision was made in a dubious way when, in a dubious referendum, more than three times as many ballot papers were in the ballot boxes as eligible voters. Even so, the vote was deemed valid and the ballot papers were counted.

Prostitution and gambling continued to flourish in the city until the start of World War I and pressure from the US Army put an end to the goings-on by local authorities. The measures led to the relocation of these undesirable businesses to the neighboring Ciudad Juárez, which brought the bars and entertainment establishments on the Mexican south side, especially during the later period of alcohol prohibition , substantial sales.

The Roaring Twenties

The Roaring Twenties brought further upswing for the city. The founder of the Hilton hotel empire , Conrad Hilton , built his first hotel in El Paso in 1930, today's Plaza Hotel . Several large entrepreneurs laid the cornerstones for the city's long-term good economic development.

The post-World War II era

After the end of the Second World War, the US Army took the construction documents and parts of the German missile program together with the missile designers led by Wernher von Braun to El Paso and then took them on to Huntsville in the state of Alabama , where they started work on the US -American missile and space program should decisively advance. A V2 rocket is on display in the Fort Bliss rocket museum today, along with many other exhibits .

The Chamizal Treaty on Border Settlement

In 1963, the United States and Mexico signed a border agreement, the so-called Chamizal Treaty , in which a disputed area of ​​El Paso was ceded to Mexico due to changes in the course of the Rio Grande. The river bed of the Rio Grande was fortified and the center of the river was subsequently established as the border between the United States and Mexico. An island previously formed by the Rio Grande was redeveloped and the area affected by the border regulation was declared a national park. Today the area on the north side is one of the largest parks in El Paso; the part located on the Mexican side in the area of ​​Ciudad Juárez is called Chamizal Park .

Further development until the 1980s

Until the 1980s, El Paso developed at a rapid pace. Fort Bliss lost its former position as a border post and developed into one of the great military centers of the Cold War. This brought thousands of soldiers, civil servants, family members and army retirees to the city.

The dominant industrial operations included a copper smelter ( ASARCO ), several petroleum refineries, and numerous low-wage operations, for example in textile processing, which specifically led to the immigration of thousands of Mexican workers. El Paso expanded through the construction of new parts of the city, especially in the northwest, north and east of the old city center.

El Paso as seen from Scenic Drive (in the background the Mexican Ciudad Juarez )

The economic recession of the 1990s and the new boom today

Since 1990 the city went through a negative economic development. The main reasons for this were the actual or threatened migration of companies to low-wage countries, the closure of the copper smelter due to falling world market prices and increasing environmental pollution from lead emissions in the surrounding area. The introduction of the North American Free Trade Area NAFTA in 1994 led to further job losses despite growth in the transport, retail and service sectors. The city's economy traditionally is sensitive to changes in Mexico's economy and is heavily reliant on shared cross-border traffic. Other reasons were the devaluation of the Mexican peso in 1994 and the tightened border controls after September 11, 2001 .

El Paso is currently experiencing a renewed boom. Numerous construction works in the city, including major road construction projects, the expansion of Fort Bliss and Biggs Army Airfield are currently stimulating the local economy. The imminent expansion of both military complexes will also bring a significant increase in the population, the importance of this for the local economy is estimated at a three-digit million amount per year.

In early August 2019, an allegedly racially motivated bomber carried out a terrorist attack on a shopping center in the city, in which he shot 22 people and injured 26.

51 buildings and sites in the city are listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) (as of March 7, 2020).

Sports

The city is the venue for the annual Sun Bowl , one of the numerous American football games of the NCAA , the parent company of US university sports. The game takes place at Sun Bowl Stadium on the grounds of the University of Texas at El Paso.

El Paso has been home to the minor league baseball team El Paso Chihuahuas since 2014 , which play their games in Southwest University Park.

The El Paso Marathon has been held annually since 2007 .

sons and daughters of the town

panorama

and display information about the image
Panoramic view of the city

Town twinning

El Paso, Texas has the following twinning partnerships:

Others

  • El Paso, El Paso County and neighboring Hudspeth County are the only areas of the state of Texas not in the Central Time Zone (UTC −6). Instead, Mountain Time (UTC −7) applies, as is the case for large parts of the Midwestern United States (e.g. Colorado , New Mexico and Arizona ).

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ There are 254 counties in Texas. (No longer available online.) In: National Association of Counties. Archived from the original on March 13, 2007 ; accessed on December 17, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.naco.org
  2. ↑ Overview of the 100 largest cities in the USA by population. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on October 31, 2014 ; accessed on October 31, 2014 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.americanet.de
  3. ↑ US Census Bureau Quickfacts: El Paso, Texas
  4. ^ US Department of Commerce, BEA, Bureau of Economic Analysis: Bureau of Economic Analysis. Retrieved July 4, 2018 (American English).
  5. ↑ El Paso, TX Economy at a Glance. Retrieved July 5, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Texas Almanac (PDF; 1.2 MB). Retrieved October 4, 2012
  7. ↑ US Census ( Memento of the original from May 8, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved October 16, 2012  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / quickfacts.census.gov
  8. ^ A b El Paso, A Borderlands History , by WH Timmons, pp. 74 ff.
  9. ^ El Paso, A Borderlands History , by WH Timmons, p. 106
  10. ↑ Chihuahua: Una Historia Compartida 1824-1821 , by Guadalupe Villa and Graziella Altamirano, pages 65-73
  11. ↑ EL PASO, TX | The Handbook of Texas Online | Texas State Historical Association (TSHA)
  12. ↑ Martin Farrer: El Paso: Beto O'Rourke blames 'racist' Trump for inflaming hatred . In: The Guardian . August 4, 2019, ISSN  0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed August 5, 2019]).
  13. ↑ Search mask database in the National Register Information System. National Park Service , accessed March 7, 2020.
    Weekly List on the National Register Information System. National Park Service , accessed March 7, 2020.
  14. ↑ City Council Meetings - Voting Items. City of El Paso, November 18, 2008, accessed December 19, 2009 .
  15. ↑ a b c d e Robert Andrade: Sister Cities. (No longer available online.) In: ¿Qué Pasa? A bi-weekly electronic bulletin from Mayor Cook. City of El Paso, March 2007, archived from the original on February 13, 2012 ; Retrieved December 19, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.elpasotexas.gov

Web links

Commons : El Paso  - collection of images, videos, and audio files