Early Site of Socorro Mission

The town that grew around the mission had about 1,100 people by the time the present church was finished in 1843, farming vineyards, fruit trees and grain from hand-dug acequias. Elephant Butte Dam changed that after 1916: family farms gave way to large holdings of cotton and alfalfa worked by machine, and by 1920 cotton was beginning to rival copper as the area's main industry. Later colonias without paved streets, water or sewers swelled the town past 22,000 by 1990. In 1985 voters refused annexation by El Paso.

What the plaque says

Early Site of Socorro Mission Following 80 years of Spanish occupation, Pueblo Indians in northern New Mexico revolted in 1680, driving out the Spaniards for a twelve-year period. Spanish refugees, as well as some members of the New Mexico tribes, followed the Rio Grande southeast to the El Paso del Norte area, where they established missions and new settlements. On October 13, 1680, the Franciscans founded Mission Santa Maria de Socorro del Sur. The original site is unknown. By 1684, the Socorro residents were using a temporary church at this location. A permanent mission church was constructed here by 1691 and dedicated as Nuestra Senora de la Limpia Concepcion de los Piros de Socorro del Sur, meaning "Our Lady of Immaculate Conception of the Piros of the Socorro of the South." The church was adobe construction, with vigas, or wooden beams, supporting the roof. A Piro Indian pueblo stood about 600 feet northeast of the church, and the mission settlement was comprised of Spaniards and Piros, as well as Tano and Jemez Indians. Records indicate the site was used until the 1740s, when flooding destroyed the building. After a flood in 1829, the channel of the Rio Grande shifted to the south toward Mexico, and the present Socorro mission was built in the 1840s one half mile northwest of this location. Scholars associated with the University of Texas at El Paso conducted archeological investigations in the early 1980s. Discoveries included the remains of church walls, indicating it was built on a cruciform plan, as well as artifacts dating to as early as the 1680s. Today, the early mission site, the oldest known mission site in Texas, is protected as a State Archeological Landmark. (2004)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Socorro Mission (Nuestra Senora de la Limpia Concepcion del Socorro) — 0.7 mi
  Socorro's adobe church on the El Paso Mission Trail, with walls five feet thick, carved vigas from an older church and a statue of Saint Michael said to have chosen the town.
• Tigua Indian Cultural Center, Ysleta del Sur Pueblo — 2.5 mi
  The cultural center of Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, the Tigua nation that has lived in the Mission Valley of El Paso since 1682 and keeps its own history here.
• Ysleta Mission (Corpus Christi de la Ysleta del Sur) — 3.3 mi
  The Tigua mission church at Ysleta, rebuilt in 1908 around the walls, bell and Santo Entierro that came through fire, its interior painted with rain clouds and corn.
• San Elizario Historic District — 4.8 mi
  A plaza of adobe buildings at the end of the El Paso Mission Trail: an 1877 chapel, Gregorio Garcia's portaled house and the old county jail of Billy the Kid legend.

More markers nearby

• Socorro Mission La Purísima — 0.7 mi
• Socorro — 0.7 mi
• The Camino Real — 0.7 mi
• Rio Vista Farm — 2.1 mi