The Camino Real

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna tell it to you. There's a road out here in El Paso County that was carrying the weight of two continents long before most of the world had heard of this stretch of desert. They called it the Camino Real.

The Royal Road. And for more than two hundred years, that name meant something. It meant commerce, it meant connection, it meant a lifeline running all the way from Mexico City and Chihuahua up through the high country to Santa Fe and Taos.

Two hundred years. Let that settle a moment. That's a lot of wagon wheels.

A lot of dust. A lot of boots on caliche. The road was the main route for transporting commercial goods along that entire corridor, and it did not apologize for the distance.

Now, the first man to travel it, at least in the record we have, was Juan de Onate, back in 1598, during his expedition to New Mexico. Fifteen ninety-eight. The road followed the San Elizario, Socorro, and Ysleta Road, crossed the Rio Grande west of what is now downtown El Paso, and pushed on north into New Mexico.

That crossing, that particular bend in the river, mattered. Then came 1848, and the Rio Grande was established as the boundary between the United States and Mexico. Just like that, this section of the old Camino Real, this ancient artery of trade and travel, found itself on the American side of the line.

The road did not move. The countries moved around it. That's the Camino Real for you.

Older than the border, older than the argument, still right there in the dust where Juan de Onate left his tracks.

What the marker says

For more than 200 years the Camino Real, or Royal Road, was the major route for transporting commercial goods from Mexico City and Chihuahua to Santa Fe and Taos. First traveled by Juan de Onate during his 1598 expedition to New Mexico, the Camino Real followed the San Elizario, Socorro, and Ysleta Road, crossed the Rio Grande west of present downtown El Paso, and continued north into New Mexico. When the Rio Grande was established as the U.S. - Mexico boundary in 1848, this section of the old Camino Real became part of the United States. (1983)