5/19/25: Mesilla Bosque St. Park & El Paso Sights

It wasn't until Steven and I had been in Las Cruces for about a week that we learned the history behind the city's name. Following the Mexican-American War in 1848, the town became a thriving stop on the Camino Real. The name Las Cruces, or The Crosses, was derived from the marking of graves of victims of an Apache attack.

On Zachary and Noora's last morning in Las Cruces, we took them to Mesilla Valley Bosque State Park. There, we learned that a bosque (pronounced BOHS-keh) is from the Spanish word for forest and refers in New Mexico to the plants and trees that grow along a river. In the state park, the bosque and Chihuahuan Desert overlap to form an ecotone, an oasis with a rich variety of plants and animals from both ecological communities. North of the Rio Grande, the bosques contain more and larger cottonwood trees. However, in the park, there are few cottonwoods, but many other trees, plants, shrubs, and grasses that depend on the river's water. The path of the Rio Grande in the Mesilla Valley has undergone significant changes between 1850 and the present. When a military surveyor drew a map of the valley in 1854, it depicted the river's bends and twists. Human intervention has since altered the river's course. As more people moved to New Mexico in the late 1800s, water demand increased, prompting the construction of diversion channels to bring water to farm fields. Engineers constructed dams, canals, and levees, and dredged the river to stop flooding that damaged crops. The result is a much straighter and faster flowing modern Rio Grande.

When Mesilla was founded in 1850, the Rio Grande flowed between the town and Las Cruces. A course change left Mesilla as an island in 1862. Flooding caused the Rio Grande to change its course again in 1885 to its current location west of Mesilla and Las Cruces.

The Rio Grande Project and the Elephant Butte Irrigation District's network of dams, canals, and drains provided a full irrigation water supply for approximately 178,000 acres of land and electric power for communities and industries in the Rio Grande Valley, spanning south-central New Mexico, west Texas, and Mexico. 

Somewhat surprisingly, we didn't see another soul on the park's trails.

I wondered if deer were present in the park site, thereby necessitating the fencing around the plants.

When you see images of immigrants trying to enter the US along the Rio Grande, I'm sure this dry riverbed does not come to mind!

A few shots back at the empty Visitor Center's beautiful garden:

Before dropping Zachary and Noora off at the airport in El Paso, in western Texas, we spent some time wandering around the downtown area, as that was our only chance to see it.

The city's central plaza, San Jacinto, was also devoid of people about midday on a Monday.

In the 1950s and 1960s, downtown El Paso's San Jacinto Plaza was home to a pond filled with live alligators, which had entertained citizens since the 1880s. The gators are long gone, but they have been replaced with an impressive fountain at the Plaza de Los Lagartos, also known as the Plaza of the Alligators.

The fiberglass sculpture of a pile of colorful, writhing gators is the work of the late Luis A. Jimenez Jr., who often saw real alligators in his youth. He was known for his gaudy, imaginative fiberglass polychrome figures.

Jimenez also sculpted the gargantuan blue horse with huge red eyes at our Denver International Airport, known as the Blue Mustang, more notably dubbed by residents as Blucifer. The sculpture is most renowned for its act of patricide! In the process of being made, Blucifer unsuspectingly killed his maker in his Hondo, NM, art studio when the mustang sculpture came loose and pinned him against a steel beam.

Photo of Blucifer courtesy of Roadside America:

The former S.H. Kress & Co. store was part of a retail five-and-dime store chain that operated from 1896 to 1981. They were known for their distinctive Art Deco architecture and elegance, often incorporating elements such as Mayan-style hieroglyphics. Some of the stores are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Kress stores in some locations played a role in the Civil Rights Movement, as their segregated lunch counters became sites of protest, such as the sit-ins in Nashville and Baton Rouge. 

A few blocks away, in Pioneer Plaza, stood the bronze statue of Fray García de San Francisco.  It was the first in the "XII Travelers Memorial of the Southwest" project, which aims to portray the region's history. Fray García was a Franciscan friar who founded the Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission at the Pass of the North in 1659, a strategic location on the Camino Real, now a historical treasure in downtown Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. 

Fray García is depicted holding a lintel beam for the mission and beckoning to the local Manso and Suma Indians to join in its construction. If the mission was like those we had visited in New Mexico, the indigenous people were forced to build the mission, not 'invited.' The basket of "mission grapes" at his feet symbolized his introduction of European agriculture to the area.

Pioneer Plaza was the center of activity in early El Paso, with a U.S. military guard posted here in the late 1870s to defend the citizens from Apache Indian attacks. Also in the plaza was the Plaza Theatre, a historic building constructed in 1930, which has evolved into a premier performing arts center and is now considered one of the city's most recognizable landmarks.

Built in the 1930s, the iconic Plaza Hotel Pioneer Park, once the tallest building in El Paso, was one of Conrad Hilton's first high-rise hotels. The hotel is renowned for its distinctive architectural style, known as Pueblo Deco, and its prominent position in the city's skyline. Elizabeth Taylor resided in the penthouse while filming Giant in 1955. After a multi-year restoration, the property has been "reimagined as a luxurious boutique hotel, blending its historic charm with modern amenities."

The entrance to El Paso St. in the old downtown area: 

Bienvenido or Welcome is a solid steel, canary-yellow, 30-foot-tall door art installation in a roundabout on El Paso St., which is part of the city's public art program. It was created by Colorado Springs, Colorado, artist Christopher Weed. According to the city's public art program, it was meant to greet all visitors to the El Paso area. However, others have taken the opportunity to mock the art installation's possible meaning -  as a portal to low wages, immigrants in the downtown area, or exits out of the city!

The historic Hotel Paso Del Norte opened in 1912 and was designed by famed architect Henry Trost. It’s known for its fireproof interior and unique foundation made from gypsum imported from the White Sands National Monument in New Mexico, which we’d visit in a few days. The iconic landmark, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, has hosted numerous dignitaries and celebrities throughout its history and is renowned for blending Mexican, Texan, and Native American cultures. Situated less than a mile from the Mexico international border, it provided panoramic views of the Franklin Mountains and the Rio Grande.

Abundant Downtown Church, a non-denominational community church established in 1977, renovated the historic Alhambra Theatre, a 1914 Trost & Trost building that most recently housed Tricky Falls nightclub! I had to smile at the thought of church elders praying in a former nightclub. According to its press release, Abundant chose to open its third church downtown to support revitalization efforts.

A historical plaque honored the contributions made by the city's Chinese community, who arrived in El Paso shortly before the Southern Pacific Railroad completed its line here in 1881. Shortly after the earliest immigrants opened a booming grocery store, the U.S. government passed the Chinese Exclusions Act in 1882, which restricted Chinese immigration. However, a sufficient number of Chinese remained to create a vibrant community in El Paso, which became the largest in Texas by the early 1920s. The Chinese built grocery stores, laundries, and restaurants. According to the sign, they experienced discrimination, but fewer problems than in other areas of the country. After the Chinese were legally allowed to immigrate later, many arrived during the Great Depression, with another wave in the late 1940s, prompted by the Communist takeover of China.

The terra cotta images of the busts of conquistadors were part of the historic Spanish-eclectic-style Hotel Cortez, which was built in 1926 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Prominent guests included President John F. Kennedy, who stayed here in 1963.

I read that the Toltec Club, founded in 1902 in this five-story Beaux-Arts building, was an exclusive men's club where El Paso's elite socialized and celebrated. Leading personalities of the Mexican Revolution spent time at the club, including federal General Juan Navarro and revolutionary leader Francisco L. Madero, who both sat at the same table following Navarro's defeat in the Battle of Juárez in 1911. Even Francisco "Pancho" Villa, though not a member of the club, maintained an office in the Toltec building during 1913. In 1913, General Pershing was honored at the club following his unsuccessful expedition into Mexico to capture Villa. 

Black suffragist and Civil Rights leader Maud Sampson Williams mobilized women to register and vote at this site, now the El Paso County Courthouse, from 1918 to 1919.

The courthouse's striking Our History mural was created by Carlos Callejo in 1996. Unlike my request to take pictures of murals in the Silver City, New Mexico, Courthouse, which was denied, there were no issues with taking these pictures!

Across the street was the Federal Building and United States Courthouse, which featured more murals and an open-door policy regarding photography, thanks to an extremely friendly security guard.

The Pass of the North oil on canvas mural was painted by El Pasoan Tom Lea. It depicted several characters typical of the state's early history, including U.S. Army men, a Franciscan friar, a ranchero, early pioneer settlers, a Spanish explorer, a prospector, and a town sheriff. I hope that if and when we return to Las Cruces, New Mexico, next year, we'll visit the city's Public Library so we can see more of Lea's murals there. 

I thought that much of downtown El Paso was pretty ragged, with a surprising number of empty storefronts, boarded-up buildings, and nearly deserted streets on a weekday. However, there were glimmers of hope in the city with many architectural delights.

Several miles away was the Chamizal National Memorial, established in 1974 to commemorate the 1963 Chamizal treaty that ended a century-old boundary dispute between the United States and Mexico caused by a change in the course of the Rio Grande. It included a museum, theater, and art galleries, as well as a large park with an amphitheater where festivals and special events are held. As it was a Monday, everything was closed, so we could only visit the park and the building's exterior.

The purpose of the memorial was to remind people that differences should be settled with mutual respect and understanding. Muralist Carlos Flores intended that his 1992 Nuestra Herencia or Our Heritage mural depict the diversity of a common heritage that brings the border community together. 

After decades of arguing about who owned a piece of land shaped and reshaped by the meandering Rio Grande, diplomacy and technology finally settled the dispute. The river was constrained within a concrete channel for 4.3 miles, forming a permanent boundary between the two nations. The U.S. set aside a portion of the former Mexican land received through the Chamizal Convention or treaty for recreational and cultural use. 

The treaty was not just a land swap. Thousands of U.S. citizens who lived in the disputed area were forced to relocate, along with businesses, places of worship, schools, and social centers. According to the treaty, the U.S. government reimbursed residents for their property, relocation expenses, and other related costs. Most structures were demolished. 

It was sad saying goodbye to Zachary and Noora at the El Paso Airport that afternoon, as we'd so enjoyed their company and were thrilled at their day-old engagement.

On our way back to Las Cruces, Steven and I stopped to view the El Paso Museum of Archaeology, located next to the National Border Patrol Museum, which we'd toured several days ago. Don't tell anyone, but I had to hop over the fence to take a look at the garden!

Mormon tea:

The garden's sculptures were a generous gift from a local foundation.

Once again, we experienced extraordinarily gusty winds on the drive back. 

The overhead sign welcomed us back to New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment, a slogan we heartily agreed with!

Next post: Visiting tiny Dona Ana, Fort Selden, and red-hot-chili-pepper Hatch!

Posted on June 18th, 2025, from our home west of Denver, where we've been experiencing days of unusually chilly and wet weather interspersed with temps in the high 90s. We much prefer the latter. Don't forget to take care of yourself before taking care of your loved ones.