Early Site of Socorro Mission
Socorro, El Paso County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Following 80 years of Spanish occupation, Pueblo Indians in northern New Mexico revolted in 1680, driving out the Spaniards for a twelve-year period. Spanish refugees, as well as some members of the New Mexico tribes, followed the Rio Grande southeast to the El Paso del Norte area, where they established missions and new settlements. On October 13, 1680, the Franciscans founded Mission Santa Maria de Socorro del Sur. The original site is unknown. By 1684, the Socorro residents were using a temporary church at this location. A permanent mission church was constructed here by 1691 and dedicated as Nuestra Senora de la Limpia Concepcion de los Piros de Socorro del Sur, meaning "Our Lady of Immaculate Conception of the Piros of the Socorro of the South." The church was adobe construction, with vigas, or wooden beams, supporting the roof. A Piro Indian pueblo stood about 600 feet northeast of the church, and the mission settlement was comprised of Spaniards and Piros, as well as Tano and Jemez Indians. Records indicate the site was used until the 1740s, when flooding destroyed the building. After a flood in 1829, the channel of the Rio Grande shifted to the south toward Mexico, and the present Socorro mission was built in the 1840s one half mile northwest of this location. Scholars associated with the University of Texas at El Paso conducted archeological investigations in the early 1980s. Discoveries included the remains of church walls, indicating it was built on a cruciform plan, as well as artifacts dating to as early as the 1680s. Today, the early mission site, the oldest known mission site in Texas, is protected as a State Archeological Landmark. (2004)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When Pueblo peoples of northern New Mexico rose against Spanish rule in the 1680 Pueblo Revolt, refugees — Spanish colonists and allied Indians alike — fled southeast down the Rio Grande to the El Paso del Norte area. There the Franciscans founded Mission Santa Maria de Socorro del Sur, and by 1691 a permanent adobe church rose here beside a Piro Indian pueblo. Floods eventually destroyed it, and after the river shifted in 1829 the present Socorro mission was built nearby; excavations in the 1980s confirmed this as the oldest known mission site in Texas.
Why it matters
This spot preserves the deep Spanish-colonial and Native roots of Texas, born of one of the most successful Indigenous uprisings in North American history and the multicultural refugee community it created.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related events
- · Pueblo Revolt of 1680
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Lugar Inicial De Mision De Socorro
Socorro, TX
This Spanish-language marker recounts how the 1680 Pueblo Revolt in northern New Mexico drove Spanish colonists and allied Indians south to the El Paso del Norte region, where the Franciscans founded Mission Santa Maria de Socorro del Sur. By 1691 a permanent adobe church stood here beside a Piro Indian pueblo, serving a settlement of Spaniards, Piros, Tano and Jemez peoples until floods destroyed it in the 1740s. Archeological work in the 1980s identified it as the oldest known mission site in Texas.
The Killing of General J. J. Byrne
Sierra Blanca, TX
In August 1880, the Apache leader Victorio's raiders ambushed a Fort Davis–bound stagecoach in a steep West Texas canyon, killing its lone passenger, retired general and surveyor J. J. Byrne, almost instantly while the driver wheeled the mules around and raced back to Fort Quitman. It was among the last acts of a two-year campaign in which Victorio's guerrilla tactics baffled and impressed the U.S. Army across Texas, New Mexico, and Mexico. Later that year, thousands of American and Mexican soldiers hunted Victorio down and killed him in Mexico.
Crow Springs
Salt Flat, TX
Named for the birds that flocked to its water, Crow Springs was an oasis in the far West Texas desert used by Indigenous peoples for centuries. The Butterfield Overland Mail built a stage relay station here in 1858, though the route soon shifted south toward Fort Davis, and during the Apache wars of the early 1880s Texas Rangers and Buffalo Soldiers of the U.S. 10th Cavalry camped at the springs to keep New Mexico's Apaches from joining the leaders Victorio and Nana. Today the springs have gone dry, the station has crumbled to dust, and the crows are gone.
The Buffalo Soldiers and Indian Hot Springs
Sierra Blanca, TX
For centuries these natural hot springs drew people seeking their curative waters, including generations of nomadic Indian peoples. After the Civil War the U.S. Army raised regiments of Black soldiers, and troopers of the 10th Cavalry, called buffalo soldiers by their adversaries, patrolled and mapped this rugged West Texas country. At dawn on October 28, 1880, companies pursuing Mescalero Apaches were attacked on a nearby ridge; at least five soldiers were killed and buried where they fell, their graves later relocated to this vicinity.