Espejo-Beltran Expedition - 1582-1583

The expedition met people who remembered earlier strangers. Up the river from the mouth of the Conchos, which Espejo named the Río del Norte, lived a nation he called the Jumanos, in large flat-roofed pueblos; they fed the Spaniards and said that some years before three Christians and a Black man had passed through. In January 1583 the party reached the El Paso area, home of the Suma and Manso, and described a mountain chain on each side of the river without timber, possibly the pass. Late that month they reported a large black rock, perhaps Elephant Butte.

What the plaque says

Espejo-Beltran Expedition - 1582-1583 Following the Rodriguez - Chamuscado Expedition of 1581 there was increased interest in the area now known as New Mexico and Texas. There was also concern for the safety of Fray Rodriguez and Fray Lopez, who had stayed in the area. In 1582 a Franciscan priest from Santa Barbara, Mexico, Fray Bernadino Beltran, formed an expedition to find the missionaries. His military escort was led by Antonio De Espejo, a former Santa Barbara merchant and rancher living in voluntary exile over a legal dispute with the Spanish authorities. The expedition departed the mining outpost of San Bartolome in November 1582. By the following January they had reached the El Paso area. In present New Mexico they learned that Fray Rodriguez and Fray Lopez had been killed by Indians. Fray Beltran led a small party back to Mexico, but Espejo and several companions stayed to check the Indian stories of silver mines and wealthy pueblos. On their journey the Spaniards became the first explorers in the region from the Pecos River Valley to the Junta de Los Rios, the junction of the Concho River and the Rio Grande. The reports of their explorations further heightened the interest in the area. 1981

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• San Elizario Historic District — steps away
  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.
• Socorro Mission (Nuestra Senora de la Limpia Concepcion del Socorro) — 5.4 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 — 7.3 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) — 8.0 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.

More markers nearby

• Rodriguez-Chamuscado Expedition, 1581 — steps away
• Juan de Onate Expedition - 1598 — steps away
• Salt War — steps away
• San Elizario — steps away