The University of Texas at El Paso
El Paso, El Paso County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The University of Texas at El Paso traces its history to April 16, 1913, when the Texas Legislature approved the creation of a State School of Mines and Metallurgy. The board of regents of the University of Texas formally established the school one year later. The citizens of El Paso donated land east of Fort Bliss for the school. The site included buildings of the former El Paso Military Institute. Following a fire in October 1916, the college was moved to this location. By the end of 1918 five buildings had been completed in an architectural style imitating that of the Himalayan country of Bhutan. Designated a branch of the University of Texas in 1919, the College of Mines and Metallurgy added liberal arts courses and by 1931 offered a bachelor of arts degree. Further expansions led to a master of arts degree program in 1940 and a doctoral degree program in 1974. The name was changed to Texas Western College in 1949, and to the University of Texas at El Paso in 1967. The institution's campus, with its mountain setting and distinctive architecture, is unique among the state's colleges. (1989)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The University of Texas at El Paso began in 1913 as a State School of Mines and Metallurgy, founded to train engineers for the region's mining economy on land the citizens of El Paso donated near Fort Bliss. After a 1916 fire, it moved to its present site and rebuilt in a striking architectural style borrowed from Himalayan Bhutan. Over decades it grew from a mining college into Texas Western College and, by 1967, a full university offering doctoral degrees.
Why it matters
UTEP's evolution from a frontier mining school to a research university mirrors the maturing of the American Southwest and the enduring link between higher education and regional industry.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the early 1900s, El Paso was a booming border city where railroads met, the Rio Grande ran past, and the mining economy of the Southwest had its business center. Smelters, rail yards, and mines across the region needed trained engineers and metallurgists. Texas had no school built to supply them.
The Texas Legislature filled that gap on April 16, 1913, when it approved a State School of Mines and Metallurgy. The University of Texas regents established the school a year later. El Paso's citizens donated land east of Fort Bliss, and the first campus used buildings left from the former El Paso Military Institute.
These were turbulent years on the border. The Mexican Revolution was underway just across the river, and Fort Bliss was an active army post. A new college here was a bet that El Paso had a future as more than a frontier town.
People & events
The young school's first campus did not last. In October 1916 a fire struck, and the college moved to the site you see today, on the slopes overlooking the river valley. Within about two years, by the end of 1918, five buildings stood there.
The buildings looked like nothing else in Texas. Their style imitated the architecture of Bhutan, a Himalayan kingdom on the other side of the world, with sloping walls, deep-set windows, and bands of dark trim. According to the long-told campus history, the idea came from the wife of an early dean, who was struck by magazine photographs of Bhutan's mountain fortresses. Rugged mountains and dry slopes made the comparison feel natural.
The school soon grew beyond mining. It became a branch of the University of Texas in 1919, as the College of Mines and Metallurgy, then added liberal arts courses and offered a bachelor of arts degree by 1931. A master's program followed in 1940. In 1949 the school became Texas Western College, which recognized that it now served far more than future mining engineers. In 1967 it took the name the University of Texas at El Paso, and in 1974 it added a doctoral program.
Its place in the American story
UTEP's story follows the growth of the American Southwest. A school created to supply engineers for mines and smelters became a broad university, as the region's economy and ambitions grew larger and more varied. Many American public universities started with a practical, industrial purpose like this one and grew far beyond it.
The school also matters because of where it is. On the U.S.-Mexico border, it has served a region where two countries and cultures meet, and it has long educated students from both sides of the line.
In 1966, under its Texas Western name, the school won the NCAA men's basketball championship with an all-Black starting lineup, a widely remembered moment in the integration of college sports. And its Bhutanese-style campus remains one of the most unusual examples of borrowed architecture in American higher education, a frontier mining school that chose to look like a Himalayan monastery.
If you visit
The campus sits among the foothills of the Franklin Mountains. Look for the sloping walls, small deep windows, and dark decorative bands that mark the Bhutan-inspired style, which the university has kept as its building identity for more than a century. The setting is easy to compare with the Himalayan photographs that inspired it.
Walk far enough uphill and you'll see the desert valley, the Rio Grande corridor, and Mexico close by on the other side. Few places make El Paso's border character so clear.
El Paso works well as a road-trip stop where western history, mining heritage, and border culture meet. Pair a campus walk with the city's older neighborhoods and the mountain drives nearby. For families, the buildings themselves start the conversation: why would a Texas mining school look like it belongs in the Himalayas?
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Themes & tags
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Old Main
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