Welcome to El Paso!
El Paso is the county seat of El Paso County in the U.S. state of Texas. Part of the American Southwest. According to the 2006
U.S. Census population estimates, the city had a population of 609,415. It is the sixth-largest city in Texas and the 21st-largest city in the
United States. Its metropolitan area covers all of El Paso County and has a population of 721,598 .
It stands on the Rio Grande (Río Bravo del Norte), across the border from Ciudad Juárez. The two cities form a metropolitan area of 2,280,782
making it the second largest bi-national metropolitan area on the US/Mexico border
El Paso is home to the University of Texas at El Paso (founded in 1914 as The Texas State School of Mines and Metallurgy and receiving university
status 1967). Fort Bliss, a major United States Army installation, lies to the east and northeast of the city, extending north up to the White
Sands Missile Range. The Franklin Mountains extend into El Paso from the north and nearly divide the city into two sections.
Archeological evidence at the Keystone Wetlands and Hueco Tanks sites indicates thousands of years of human settlement within the El Paso region
(see: Mogollon culture). The Manso, Suma, and Jumano Indians were identified as present by the earliest Spanish explorers. These people
ultimately became assimilated into the local settler population, becoming part of the Mestizo culture that is prevalent in Mexico and is visible
throughout the Southwest. Others integrated themselves with the different Mescalero Apache bands that for many years roamed the region.
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