by Raul F. Amaya, El Paso, Texas
I am the Franklin Mountains, called by the Conquistadores Las Sierras de los Mansos.
I am the outstanding geological feature in the town then city that I tower over and that grew up around me.
I was born about 50 to 70 million years ago from geologic and volcanic activity and have been growing and changing since then.
I am the Franklin Mountains.
I’ve seen many creatures come and go over my life span like dinosaurs as they migrated from Northern Mexico to Colorado, millions of years later Mammoths & giant sloths.
About 50,000 years ago I saw the formation of the Rio Grande below me, and eventually it cut a path, named by the Spaniards who came thousands of years later, El Paso del Norte, between me and the Sierras de Juárez forming the Rio Grande Valley.
I am the Franklin Mountains.
Many kinds of animals and plants make their homes in me like:
mountain lions, deer and foxes;
birds like hawks and sparrows;
reptiles like lizards and snakes;
trees like cottonwood, oak, and juniper,
and plants like barrel cactus and Mexican poppies.
About 10,000 to 7,000 BC the Paleo-Indians passed through the area, but it wasn’t until four thousand years ago that I saw the first humans; the Manso, Suma and Jumano tribes made their homes at my foothills, in Keystone Park and up and down the Rio Grande Valley.
I am the Franklin Mountains.
In 1581 I witnessed the 1st Europeans cross the pass the Rio Grande cut through me.
In 1598 I witnessed the 1st Thanksgiving celebrated by Juan de Oñate who named the town and city beneath me and whose statue is at the airport.
I saw the establishment of Ft. Bliss in 1849 to protect the settlers moving west to settle it displacing the Indians who were there.
Then in 1881 I saw the arrival of the railroad which greatly accelerated the growth in the lands below me.
Starting in 1914 I saw the Texas State School of Mines & Metallurgy, today’s UTEP, being built on my foothills.
I am the Franklin Mountains.
From my peaks people can see 2 countries, the United States of America & Mexico,
3 states: Texas, New Mexico & Chihuahua, and 2.5 million people living in the world’s busiest international border comprised of the cities of El Paso, Texas & Juarez, Chihuahua.
Yes in my long history I have seen many things including 6 flags flying over me and the lands around me, the flags of Spain, Mexico, France, the Republic of Texas, the United States of America & the Confederacy.
I am the Franklin Mountains.
Some people want to live within and on top of me. They want to economically develop me for commercial and residential properties, to make money.
Regardless of what they do I’ll be here long after they and all their building are long gone. But animals and plants would be destroyed to accommodate this development.
And there are people called conservationists, environmentalists and Greens who like me the way I and do not want to see any further development on or immediately around me. They love the way I look & they want to keep me that way. They want to preserve & protect the habitat I provide the animals and plants that live around me.
I am the Franklin Mountains.
Photos
Rick LoBello
National Park Service
Conservation Education 