Articles By Gerald Barrett:

Plaza Theater

Sandy Avritt Messer arranged for the Irvin 1966 class 50th year reunion attendees to get this tour. It was amazing!

Every other Tuesday, at noon, you can tour the Plaza Theater and learn about the history of this iconic building. Sign up at El Paso Live for this amazing and free guided tour!

Originally built in the 1930’s with the vision of looking like the inside and outside of a 1700’s Spanish villa, it is the home of one of only 6 Wurlitzer Pipe Organs Balaban III. It was built with as movie screen theater and showed the last big budget motion picture in 1973 (The Exorcist). After decades of sitting unused, it has been renovated and returned to its former beauty and draws in crowds from near and far for events, musicals, film festivals, etc.

Ascarate Park Was Once A National Champion Race Track

You've probably been to Ascarate Park. You've probably eaten a carne asada taco by the lake, watched your kid lose their mind at the aquatic center, or played a round at the golf course. But how much do you actually know about the place?

The Ground You're Picnicking On Used to Be the Rio Grande.

Before Ascarate was a park, it wasn't land at all. The area was a banco, which is what the International Boundary Commission calls a river loop of the Rio Grande. When the IBC straightened the river in the early 1930s, the old loop became dry land, and the federal government deeded it to El Paso County. So the next time you're tossing a frisbee at Ascarate, just know you're doing it on what used to be the bottom of the Rio Grande. That's kind of poetic.

In 1937, El Paso County residents voted on a proposed three-cent tax levy to help fund a new park. They didn't just pass it. They crushed it, approving it by 372 votes over the required two-thirds majority. Combined with a $400,000 federal grant, that money built what would become Ascarate Park.

Now, for anyone who has spent five minutes on local El Paso social media watching residents fight against basically every new city project being proposed today, this fact might hit different. To be fair, three cents in 1937 is roughly $0.65 today, and everything is astronomically more expensive in 2026, so I get it. But still. El Paso voted yes, overwhelmingly, and got a 400-acre park out of it. Not a bad deal.

The Lake Was The Biggest Civilian Conservation Corps Project In Texas. The Civilian Conservation Corps, better known as the CCC, was a New Deal program created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 to put unemployed young men to work during the Great Depression. At its peak, the CCC employed around 300,000 men nationwide, and their fingerprints are all over America's parks, trails, bridges, and public buildings. They were essentially the country's construction crew during one of its darkest economic periods, and the work they did still stands today.

Their work at Ascarate was no small task. More than 200 CCC laborers built the baseball fields, tennis courts, a recreation center, and the golf course. Then they removed more than one million cubic yards (2-3 billion pounds) of sand to create the 45-acre lake, which opened in December 1940. The whole project was the largest CCC undertaking in the entire state of Texas. The next time you're fishing at Ascarate Lake, you're casting a line into a hole that hundreds of men dug by hand almost 90 years ago. That is monumental.

There Used to Be a Full National Championship Car Racing Circuit Inside Ascarate. At some point between the baseball fields and the paddle boats, Ascarate Park was home to a legitimate, nationally sanctioned sports car racing circuit. A two-mile road course that Road and Track magazine once described as one of the toughest in the country. The Sports Car Club of America held national championship races there, including a 1959 event that drew competitors from across the country, running at average speeds around 65 mph along the park's macadam roads and along the edge of the lake. The races were sponsored by the El Paso 20-30 Club, a local car enthusiast group, and the course had real pit lanes, real competition, and the kind of racing drama you would not expect from a public park in the middle of El Paso.

Here is a video report with footage from one of the races held on the Grand Prix track. Fast-forward the video and story starts at 48:20 https://www.ktsm.com/.../smalltown-spotlight.../10739486/

 

History of San Jacinto Plaza

The purchase of two acres of land in 1881 was for the use as a town square and became a fully functional plaza by 1883. It was named San Jacinto Plaza after the battle for Texas Independence in 1903. The original design and layout was like that of many urban gathering spots in the late 1880’s, a centralized open area in the middle with sidewalks, trees and benches spreading out from the center. A sundial design at the center of the Plaza was eventually added around the “Los Lagartos” Fountain with Alligators.

Alligators were introduced into the existing central pond in the 1880’s and were the main attraction to visitors. The alligators were removed in 1974 for humane reasons. A commemorative statue of three alligators was commissioned and placed in the central fountain in 1995 to honor the 80-year presence of alligators in the Plaza.

San Jacinto Plaza has always been at the heart of the great and colorful history of the El Paso community. From a military outpost established three decades before El Paso was incorporated, it became a meeting place for citizens to discuss current events, viewing the troops as they paraded around the square, art exhibitions during the 1930’s, holiday festivities, watching the alligator’s that once resided in the center of the park, to weekly history dissertations in the summer month.

In the beginning horse drawn carriages surrounded the plaza. In 1950 it became a major boarding area for city buses and taxicabs.

Recently, San Jacinto Park and El Paso were recognized for their importance to our southern neighbors Mexico, when they placed the historical marker, “First Meeting of Presidents Taft and Diaz” which echo’s our sentiments that this park was and remains a legacy to the heritage of our great state, the southwest, and El Paso.

There are 16 plaques of national, state, county and local significance dispersed throughout San Jacinto Plaza representing historical events as well as local donations and memorials. Six of these plaques provide recognition for national, state and county level historic designations.

A complete renovation of San Jacinto Plaza began in late 2013 following a Quality of Life Bond approved by voters in 2011. The renovation cost $5.3 million. The renovations enlarge the footprint of the plaza, adding new irrigation, new sidewalks, an updated performance stage, a full service cafe, an interactive water splash-pad and reflecting pools. This new modern landscaped park has new tables, benches and chessboards. Bridges have been built to cross over an arroyo that runs through the plaza and will be better exposed and adorned with boulders. And, of course, the Los Largartos statue was returned to the center.

 

JOHNNY CASH ARRESTED IN EL PASO OCTOBER 4, 1965, SPENT ONE NIGHT IN JAIL. BLACKMAILED BY FORMER EL PASO POLICE OFFICER 20 YEARS LATER!

 

EL PASO TIMES (October 5, 1965) - CASH MAKES BOND - Country and Western star Johnny Cash [see photo below] is flanked by a bondsman and a U.S. Marshall as he was transferred from El Paso County Jail to the Federal Courthouse Tuesday. Cash was arrested at International Airport Monday and charged with importing and concealing over 1,000 pep pills and tranquilizers. Bond was $1,500.

EL PASO TIMES (March 9, 1966) - "I realize my mistake," recording star Johnny Cash told U.S. District Judge D.W. Suttle Tuesday before receiving a $1,000 fine and a 30-day suspended sentence for possession of illegal drugs, a misdemeanor charge that he pleaded guilty to on Dec. 28. Just off a three-week tour in Ohio and Michigan, Cash appeared in federal court with his attorney, recording agent and minister. Cash, who earned a good conduct medal while serving with the Air Force, said he regretted his "mistake" in bringing several hundred pep and tranquilizer pills into the U.S. from Juárez. "It was bad, very bad, misconduct on my part," Cash said. "He told the court he had just finished a hard tour of one-night stands and went to Juárez to relax. "I had several beers, I guess I was so tired I lost my faculties. I saw the customs agent staked out on the corner, but I just didn't seem to care,'" he said. He previously told federal agents he had bought the pills on a Juárez main street. Judge Suttle said he was not going to lecture the defendant but pointed out that Cash held a prominent image before the youth of this nation and that therefore his misdemeanor was even more serious. Later, Cash sat down to a huge breakfast of four-minute steaks, scrambled eggs and a mountain of buttered toast. He drank several cups of coffee and appeared relaxed and eager to talk. He delayed calling his wife and parents in California until he had composed himself. Cash sat down to eat with his attorney, Woodrow W. Bean; Don Law, Columbia Records recording agent; Johnny Thompson, a friend; and the Rev. Floyd Bressett, pastor of the Avenue Community Church, of Ventura, Calif., that Cash recently joined.

El PASO TIMES (March 7, 1985) - EXTORTION TRY GETS EX-DEPUTY PROBATION, FINE - A former El Paso County sheriff’s sergeant was sentenced Wednesday to five years supervised probation and a $500 fine for threatening to extort money from singer Johnny Cash. Jesus Gurrola, who pleaded guilty to the extortion charge guilty to the extortion charge Feb. 13, also was required to serve 500 hours community service as part of the sentence imposed by U.S. District Judge Harry Lee Hudspeth. Federal records show Gurrola wrote Cash a hand-written letter about Jan. 29, 1984, threatening to mail the country singer’s arrest records and sheriff’s mug shot to various publications that included People magazine, Parade magazine and the National Enquirer. No specific amount of money was demanded from cash in the letter. Gurrola wanted the singer to contact him for further negotiations, records show. In the letter, Gurrola wrote that he “admired” Cash because he always “fought back.” Gurrola, 37, had been a sheriff’s sergeant from 1979 to 1983, when he was fired by then-Sheriff Mike Davis when he took office. Last summer, records related to Cash’s 1965 drug arrest in El Paso were discovered missing from Sheriff’s Department files. Documents missing included photographs and fingerprints taken before Cash pleaded guilty in October 1965 to a misdemeanor narcotics charge and was fined $1,000.

 

Licon Dairy in Sal Elizario

 

There isn't a single dairy cow at Licon Dairy — and hasn't been in over 20 years.

It started in 1948, when Soltero and Isabella Martinez brought a couple of milk cows and a family asadero* recipe from California to San Elizario. They sold the cheese door to door, and by the 1960s their daughter Maria and her husband Eugenio Licon had taken over, moved the operation to its current spot on the Old Mission Trail, and built up a herd of Holsteins.

Then the early 2000s hit. A bovine tuberculosis outbreak forced the USDA to shut down dairy herds across El Paso County — Licon's included. The cows never came back.

Instead of closing up, the family pivoted — sourcing their milk from Sarah Farms and hand-making the same asadero recipe they always had. Today, four generations in, Licon Dairy still runs on that 50-acre property, still turns out roughly 400 packages of cheese a day, and still sells out most afternoons. The cows aren't even the main animal attraction anymore — the free petting zoo out back has grown from two ostriches into llamas, donkeys, goats, peacocks, and a camel named Roger who's a local celebrity at this point.

* Asadero cheese is a mild, semi-soft white Mexican cheese known for its exceptional melting and stretching qualities.

 

Famous WWII Army General Terry Allen

 

He was quite a rascal - very colorful. Great tactician. Hard drinker.

Major General Terry de la Mesa Allen led the 1st infantry Division in North Africa and Sicily during WWII. He returned to the the USA to train the 104th (Timberwolf) Division, which went to Europe and was the first to link up with the Russians. General Allen retired in El Paso after the war and died on Sept 12, 1969. He is buried at Ft. Bliss National Cemetery. 

Link to an article for anyone who would like to read more -->  https://warhistory.org/article/terrible-terry-allen