San Elizario

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way out in El Paso County, there's a place called San Elizario, and the ground beneath it has been holding a story since 1683. That's the year Don Domingo Jironza Petriz de Cruzate established the Presidio de Nuestra Senora Del Pilar y Glorioso Senor San Jose.

Now, that is a name that commands respect just in the saying of it. And it wasn't established here, not at first. It started near the Mision de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe, over in what is now Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

So this story has some miles on it before it even gets to where you're standing. Then, in 1773, the presidio was relocated to this very site, and with that move came a new name: Presidio de San Elzeario. A place gets a new name, a new position on the map, and the work goes on.

The chapel here was served by Franciscan missionaries, tending to that far reach of the frontier. A presidio, a mission, a chapel, and the long dusty road of time connecting it all. Some places earn their ground twice.

San Elizario is one of them.

What the marker says

Site of the Presidio de Nuestra Senora Del Pilar y Glorioso Senor San Jose established by Don Domingo Jironza Petriz de Cruzate in 1683 near Mision de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe in present Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Located on this site in 1773 and renamed Presidio de San Elzeario. Its chapel was served by Franciscan missionaries.