El Paso Facts
Fact 1: El Paso's downtown streets look rather rustic even though they're not. Copied after streets in Mexico, the street surfacing technique uses black cement to pave the road. After the cement is poured, a roller passes over it, leaving a cobblestone-like impression.
Fact 2: Better watch your fingers... Picturesque San Jacinto Plaza, El Paso's public square, was also known as Alligator Park for decades. Gators real, live alligators were first housed in the square's enclosed man-made pond in 1883, and despite an unfortunate 1887 incident during which some hoodlums killed one, the gators resided there until 1965. In the early days, locals feared the beloved reptiles might freeze during one of El Paso's notorious cold snaps, so whenever the temperature dipped, they'd take the gators to a nearby saloon for the night. Although the real alligators are gone, folks continue to visit them a vivid Luis Jimenez commemorative sculpture graces their former home, and their descendants now live at the El Paso Zoo.
Fact 3: Note to travelers: El Paso is closer to San Diego, California than it is to Houston! In addition, the sheer size of the state of Texas means that El Paso is actually closer to the state capitals of Arizona, New Mexico, and Oklahoma than it is to Austin. Incidentally, the oldest road in the US, the Camino Real (King's Highway), runs through El Paso.
Fact 4: Hope you're hungry! The El Paso Diablos Baseball Club holds the world record for the biggest pecan pie ever made. At Cohen Stadium in 1999, the team made a pecan pie that weighed in at over 41,000 pounds and measured about 50 feet in diameter.
Fact 5: What time is it? Texas, excluding El Paso, lies in the Central Time Zone. El Paso, along with New Mexico, falls in the Mountain Time Zone.
Fact 6: Even though it's currently ranked the third safest city in the US, during the 1800s El Paso had quite a reputation for lawlessness, and it was often called "Six Shooter Capital" or "Sin City." In fact, notorious outlaw John Wesley Hardin was gunned down in El Paso and is buried in Concordia Cemetery, along with a host of other colorful El Pasoans.
Fact 7: The first attempted skyjacking to Cuba was thwarted in El Paso. In 1961, father-son team Leon and Cody Bearden boarded a plane in Phoenix, and demanded to be taken to Cuba. After some haggling, the pilot convinced them that a stop in El Paso was necessary for refueling. Once in El Paso, the FBI managed to disable the plane, and the Beardens were taken into custody. Leon was sentenced to 20-life in Leavenworth, but Cody was released from a Colorado juvenile facility when he turned 21.
Fact 8: Seeing stars... One of the best-known El Paso landmarks is the illuminated Mountain Star. Constructed in 1940, the star was initially only lighted during the December holidays, with a few exceptions. But, thanks to the Chamber of Commerce, the star has been aglow every night since April 1993. At 459 feet long and 278 feet wide, with 459 light bulbs, the star can be seen for 30 miles from the ground, and 100 miles from the air.
Fact 9: "To boldly go where no man has gone before..." In 1991, El Paso's previously nameless planetarium was bestowed a new moniker: The Gene Roddenberry Planetarium. Native son Roddenberry was born in El Paso in 1921, and was well known not only as the creator of "Star Trek," but as a visionary thinker and writer as well. Operated by the El Paso Independent School District, the planetarium is a favorite attraction with school children and the general public alike.
Fact 10: The rest of the state may be obsessed with Dallas Cowboys football, but El Paso remains faithful to the Miners of the University of Texas at El Paso. Whether it's football, basketball, or golf, the city's devoted fans turn out in droves, even for televised games. Bars on game days are generally packed, with all eyes glued to the tube and all conversation related to sports. Incidentally, UTEP was originally known as the "State School of Mines and Metallurgy" (hence the "Miners"), and the school's mascot is a brawny prospector named Paydirt Pete.
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