SOUTHERN PACIFIC LINES 123 
war” of 1877, initiated by the earlier settlers, who rebelled at paying 
for salt in Salt Flat (see p. 117), and also as the scene of some of the 
exploits of the outlaw known as “Billy the Kid.” | 
Ysleta (ees-lay’ta) is one of the old settlements of the Rio Grande 
Ysleta. Valley, now largely Mexican in population but 
levation 370 feer, Orginally Indian. Its cathedral is the old Spanish 
Population 2,025... mission of Nuestra Sefiora de Carmen, founded in 
nln Orleans 1,175 4682 shortly after the Indian rebellion of 1680. 
From Ysleta into El Paso there is a wide zone of 
almost continuous settlement with attractive residences, shade 
trees, and irrigated fields, gardens, and orchards raising hay, alfalfa, 
and other forage crops, vegetables, fruits, and other products for the 
local market and for shipment. Long-staple cotton is also an 
important crop here, yielding a bale to the acre. After the long 
trip through the thinly populated arid part of western Texas this 
irrigated valley seems like a different country. About 180,000 
acres is under cultivation above and below El Paso. With an 
average annual rainfall of only 9 or 10 inches irrigation is absolutely 
necessary. The water is taken from the river, which has furnished 
it for several centuries, but now the Elephant Butte Reservoir, 115 
miles above El Paso, insures a regular and larger supply. 
Near El Paso there are fine views of the Franklin Mountains, to 
the northwest, and some prominent ranges in Mexico, to the west 
and southwest. 
The railroad enters El] Paso from the southeast and goes to a 
union station near the western edge of the city. El Paso is a large, 
long-established business, livestock, and railroad 
El Paso. ; ‘ 
Be i ince center, an important port of entry from Mexico, and 
Population 10242. the headquarters of the large Army post of Fort 
Naw. Qeheas! 18 Bliss. Its original site was determined by the gate- 
way cut by the Rio Grande and a good ford 
crossing into Mexico. It is on ‘‘El Camino Real” (ca-mee’no ray- 
ahl’), now Highway 85, the oldest highway on the continent, which 
passes through the city as San Franciseo Street. 
The Rio Grande was discovered in 1536 by Cabeza de Vaca, who, 
after eight years’ wanderings following the disastrous failure of the 
Narvaez expedition to Florida, forded the river just above its junction 
with the Rio Conchos, 100 miles below El Paso. It seems probable 
that De Vaca reached the El Paso region in 1536 and traveled up its 
east side far north into the present New Mexico before turning 
southwest to reach Culiacan, in Mexico. (Sauer, Bolton, and R. T. 
Hill.) It was next visited in 1540, in its northern extension, by 
Hernando de Alvarado, one of Coronado’s captains, who named it the 
Rio Bravo del Norte, a name still in use on most Mexican maps. 
The first explorers to cross the ford at El Paso were Francisco 
Sénchez Chamuscado with Padre Agustin Rodriguez in 1581, and 
