san elizario

San Elizario. original name "El Presidio(fort) de San ELCEARIO.One of the oldest, most historical and colorful towns in NORTH AMERICA. One of the first European visitors was a Spaniard named Avar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca,around 1535.And for those of us who love THANKSGIVING Holidays,there is good evidence that the first one did not commence back East,but at San Elizario on April 30,1598.Juan de Onate and our first known European colonist passedthrough with 83 wagons and 8000 head of livestock.(In those days,this area was part of Mexico south bank of the Rio bravo. On April 31 1535 the friars said a Mass of Thanksgiving, proclaiming La Toma -the taking of Possession, and the first KNOWN Mass ever celebrated in what is now the United States.The first public school in El Paso county opened in 1870 at San Elizario. In San Elizario it's old jail where Billy The KID once broke out. And the old presidio chapel makes one of the oldest citys of the U.S.