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 over two hundred years the Camino Real, or Royal Road, was the great commercial route linking Mexico City and Chihuahua with Santa Fe and Taos. Juan de Oñate first traveled it during his 1598 expedition into New Mexico, and it ran through the El Paso valley settlements before crossing the Rio Grande and turning north. When the river became the international boundary in 1848, this stretch of the old Spanish road passed into the United States.
Why it matters
The Camino Real is a living reminder that the Southwest was crisscrossed by a vast Spanish trade network long before it became American soil.
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Related people
- · Juan de Oñate
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Site of Frontera
El Paso, TX
In August 1848, just months after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo drew the El Paso region into the United States, T. Frank White planted the settlement of Frontera on the bank of the Rio Grande. Sitting at Mule Ford on the old Chihuahua Trail — part of the Camino Real — it briefly held real promise, with White serving as magistrate, customs collector, and trading-post proprietor. The Compromise of 1850 placed Frontera on the Texas side, White lost his influence, and the little settlement faded, absorbed at last into the modern city of El Paso.
The Pass of the North
El Paso, TX
Where the Rio Grande cuts between the mountains at El Paso lies the Pass of the North, the northernmost Rocky Mountain gap that stays free of snow year-round. Indigenous peoples traveled it for centuries before Spanish explorers arrived, and Juan de Oñate drove the first cattle into what is now the United States through it in 1598. In the 1849 gold rush and after, stage lines and railroads all funneled through this natural gateway.
El Paso
Anthony, TX
Named for the mountain pass that gave it life, El Paso has long been a gateway—first for Indigenous peoples, then for Spanish priests, gold-seekers, traders, and stagecoaches funneling through the Rio Grande corridor. Federal troops occupied this borderland longer than any other part of Texas during the Civil War, and the city grew into an agricultural, industrial, and military center dotted with Spanish missions.
El Paso del Rio del Norte
El Paso, TX
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.