Casa Ortiz
Socorro, El Paso County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Legend says this house was built before 1800. In 1840s, its owner was Jose Ortiz, whose cart train freighted salt from foot of Guadalupe Mountains to Durango; knives, sarapes, clothing to Santa Fe and Llano Estacado. There he traded with Comanches and other wild Indians for dried buffalo hides and meat. He was a "Comanchero, Salinero, Cibolero." Francisco Lujan, the wido of Epifanio Ortiz (1842?-1932), was last of family to live here, in 1940s. A fine example of New Spain's frontier architecture: thick adobe walls; cottonwood and willow vigas and latias with dirt roof. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1973
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Tradition holds that this thick-walled adobe near Socorro was built before 1800, in the era of New Spain's far northern frontier. By the 1840s it belonged to José Ortiz, a 'Comanchero' whose ox-cart trains hauled salt from the Guadalupe Mountains and carried goods to Santa Fe and out onto the Llano Estacado, where he traded with the Comanches for buffalo hides and meat. With its cottonwood and willow vigas and earthen roof, the house is a fine surviving example of Spanish colonial frontier building.
Why it matters
Casa Ortiz preserves the borderland world of the Comancheros — the Hispanic traders whose commerce with the Plains tribes shaped the economy and culture of the Southwest long before it became part of the United States.
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Related people
- · Jose Ortiz
- · Francisco Lujan
Themes & tags
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