San Lorenzo

San Lorenzo began as a refugee camp. Spanish and Indian families fleeing the Pueblo Revolt had set it up by October 9, 1680, and Governor Antonio de Otermín made his residence there. It grew into a prosperous farming community of 150 Suma and 150 Spanish by 1750. Mission lands were given to the Indians in 1751, but the Sumas revolted by 1754. By 1760 only fifty-eight Indians remained. The community of Ascarate later replaced it, and El Paso absorbed both.

What the plaque says

San Lorenzo Established by Don Antonio de Otermin and Father Fray Francisco Ayeta, O.F.M. in 1682. Maintained by Franciscan Missionaries for the civilizing and Christianizing of the Zuma Indians.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Chamizal National Memorial — 1.8 mi
  A park on land the Rio Grande once put in dispute, where a century-old border quarrel between the United States and Mexico was settled by treaty and a new concrete channel.
• Magoffin Home State Historic Site — 3.2 mi
  A U-shaped adobe of the 1870s in central El Paso that joins Mexican building to an Anglo plan, closed for restoration through 2027 while its visitor center stays open.
• Ysleta Mission (Corpus Christi de la Ysleta del Sur) — 7.8 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.
• Tigua Indian Cultural Center, Ysleta del Sur Pueblo — 8.5 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.

More markers nearby

• Urbici Soler — 1.1 mi
• Victoriano Huerta — 1.2 mi
• Franklin Canal — 1.2 mi
• Henry C. Trost — 1.2 mi