Smeltertown
El Paso, El Paso County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The Kansas City Consolidated Smelting and Refining Company came to El Paso in the late 19th century, creating a mining and smelting center for the Southwest. In 1899, the American Smelting and Refining Company (ASARCO) bought the operation and refined lead, copper and other ores. The need for a large labor pool brought in thousands of Mexican immigrants; these workers established homes for their families on company land around the smelter and developed a dynamic community called Smeltertown, or La Esmelda. Smeltertown grew into a small city within a city and was home to Asarco brick and cement plants, and a limestone quarry. The settlement was divided into upper and lower Smeltertown, or El Alto and El Bajo, and within these areas were smaller barrios. The only one remaining today is La Calavera, or Skull Canyon, laid out along the road to the Smeltertown Cemetery. Smeltertown was home to its own Y.M.C.A. branch and schools, most notably E.B. Jones School. Throughout the area, residents established organizations, stores, restaurants and other businesses, and named streets after residents who died in military service during World War II. The San José Del Rio (San José de Cristo Rey Catholic Church) served the residents as a place for worship and social and community activity. Parishioners undertook regular pilgrimages to the top of Cerro de Muleros, now known as Mount Cristo Rey, and initiated creation of the Cristo Rey Monument, erected in 1940. In the early 1970s, after environmental officials found high levels of lead contamination in the soil, community buildings were razed and families were relocated. Today, an annual reunion brings former residents together to remember the once vibrant and bustling Smeltertown. (2004)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the late 19th century a smelting operation — bought by ASARCO in 1899 — turned this stretch of the Rio Grande into a center for refining lead, copper, and other ores. Thousands of Mexican immigrant workers and their families built a vibrant community around the smelter called Smeltertown, or La Esmelda, complete with schools, churches, businesses, and the pilgrimage site of Mount Cristo Rey. When dangerous levels of lead contamination were found in the early 1970s, the community's buildings were razed and its families relocated.
Why it matters
Smeltertown captures both the immigrant labor that powered the industrial Southwest and the human cost of industrial pollution, its scattered residents still gathering to remember a community erased.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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