Scenic Drive

The range behind this overlook became a state park only after a new road forced the issue. People urged saving the Franklins since 1925, but nothing happened until 1979, when a developer cut a road to the top of North Franklin Mountain. Environmentalists formed a Wilderness Park Coalition, and the legislature directed Texas Parks and Wildlife to acquire the range. Land along the Trans Mountain highway still includes the Army's Castner Range, where unexploded shells remain a hazard.

What the plaque says

Scenic Drive As early as 1881, El Paso leaders promoted the idea of creating a place along the base of the Franklin Mountains to provide visitors a panoramic view of the area. The automobile brought new attention to the idea, and in 1920, the city council and Mayor Charles Davis approved construction of a scenic drive. Finished in October 1920, the route became a popular attraction. The 1.82-mile drive reaches an elevation of 4,222 feet, 500 feet above the Rio Grande. In 1932, the city contracted to widen and pave the road, and in 1934, Civilian Conservation Corps Company 855 (Fort Bliss) carried out additional culvert work. Scenic Drive continues to attract visitors to the view of El Paso, Ciudad Juárez and the surrounding Chihuahuan desert. (2004)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Magoffin Home State Historic Site — 1.4 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.
• 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.
• Franklin Mountains State Park — 11 mi
  Almost 27,000 acres of desert mountains inside El Paso, with the oldest rocks in Texas, more than 100 miles of trail and campsites in the Tom Mays Unit.
• Ysleta Mission (Corpus Christi de la Ysleta del Sur) — 11 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

• The Rainmakers of 1891 — steps away
• First Presbyterian Church of El Paso — 0.4 mi
• William Ward Turney and Iva Guthrie Turney — 0.8 mi
• First Christian Church of El Paso — 1.0 mi