The Camino Real
El Paso, El Paso County, Texas
Marker Inscription
For more than 200 years the Camino Real, or Royal Road, was the major route for transporting commercial goods from Mexico City and Chihuahua to Santa Fe and Taos. First traveled by Juan de Onate during his 1598 expedition to New Mexico, the Camino Real followed the San Elizario, Socorro, and Ysleta Road, crossed the Rio Grande west of present downtown El Paso, and continued north into New Mexico. When the Rio Grande was established as the U.S. - Mexico boundary in 1848, this section of the old Camino Real became part of the United States. (1983)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
For more than two centuries the Camino Real, the Royal Road, was the lifeline linking Mexico City and Chihuahua to the Spanish outposts of Santa Fe and Taos. First traveled by Juan de Oñate on his 1598 expedition into New Mexico, it followed the San Elizario–Socorro–Ysleta road and forded the Rio Grande west of today's downtown El Paso. When the river became the U.S.–Mexico border in 1848, this stretch of the ancient route passed into the United States.
Why it matters
It is one of North America's oldest overland trade routes — the artery of Spanish colonial commerce that shaped settlement across the Southwest long before U.S. rule.
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Related people
- · Juan de Oñate
Related events
- · Oñate expedition of 1598
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
El Paso del Rio del Norte
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El Paso del Río del Norte — the Pass of the North — is the lowest snow-free route through the Rocky Mountains between the Atlantic and Pacific, and for that reason it became a great artery of continental travel. Through it run the trunk lines of telegraph and railroad that knit the modern nation together, and the city of El Paso grew up to mark the spot and carry on its name. This marker was placed in 1936 during the Texas Centennial.
El Paso
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Pioneer Plaza
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San Jacinto Plaza
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This downtown El Paso square has watched the crossroads of the Southwest pass by since Spanish colonial times. When a group of buyers purchased and platted the townsite in 1857, they set aside this public plot and later donated it to the incorporated city — a shady resting place that saw ox carts, covered wagons, Jefferson Davis's experimental Camel Corps, stagecoaches, and the first railroad whistles. In 1902 the city fathers permanently named it San Jacinto Plaza.