San Elizario Cemetery
San Elizario, El Paso County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Established 1898 Historic Texas Cemetery – 2012
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
San Elizario Cemetery, established in 1898, lies in one of the oldest settlements in the El Paso valley—a onetime presidio town and county seat with deep Spanish colonial roots. By the late 19th century the community was a farming center along the Rio Grande, and its cemetery holds generations of the families who lived there. It carries the Historic Texas Cemetery designation.
Why it matters
San Elizario is among the border region's most historic communities, and its cemetery preserves the continuity of a people whose presence predates the state of Texas itself.
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Nearby & related markers
Old County Jail
San Elizario, TX
Built around 1850 of adobe brick and cottonwood logs wrapped around steel cell blocks, this structure served as county jail while San Elizario was first, and later third, seat of El Paso County. Under one roof it held both the carcel and the juzgado—jail and courtroom together. Legend has it that Billy the Kid engineered the only successful escape from its cells, freeing his companion Melquiades Seguro.
Salt War
San Elizario, TX
For generations, the salt lakes east of El Paso were a free resource anyone could gather from — until private claims collided with community right in the 1877 Salt War. After former judge Charles Howard shot his rival Luis Cardis over control of the beds, an enraged mob killed Howard and several state troopers protecting him at San Elizario. The violence drew federal and state investigators and led directly to the re-establishment of Fort Bliss in 1878.
Rodriguez-Chamuscado Expedition, 1581
San Elizario, TX
In 1581, drawn by Indian accounts of settlements to the north, the Franciscan Fray Agustin Rodriguez led a small missionary expedition up the Rio Grande, guided by the red-bearded soldier Francisco Sanchez, known as El Chamuscado, "The Singed." They became likely the first Spaniards to pass through the Pass of the North near present El Paso, exploring from New Mexico to the Texas Panhandle before hardship and death overtook their leaders.
The Camino Real
San Elizario, TX
For more than two centuries the Camino Real, the "Royal Road," carried goods and travelers between Mexico City, Chihuahua, and the New Mexican towns of Santa Fe and Taos. First traced by Juan de Oñate on his 1598 expedition, the route threaded through the San Elizario–Socorro–Ysleta settlements and crossed the Rio Grande near present-day El Paso. When the river became the U.S.–Mexico boundary in 1848, this ancient artery of Spanish colonial commerce became part of the United States.