History
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High above the point where Texas, New Mexico, and Chihuahua intersect, an impressive monument portraying Christ on the cross stands at the summit of Sierra de Cristo Rey; the dream of the small parish of San Jose Del Rio Grande was realized when this fifty-three-foot-high cross was dedicated in 1940. Across the river from the Southwestern Portland Cement Company plant is the east-west boundary monument between the United States and Mexico, a line established by the Gadsden Purchase Treaty of 1853, which added 45,000 square miles to the southern portions of New Mexico and Arizona through purchase from Mexico for ten million dollars. Nearby, the stacks of the El Paso Smelting Works rise above a huge plant that has operated continuously since 1887, is the largest custom smelter in the world, and has been an important and sustaining factor in the mining development of this area.
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El Paso, Texas · United States
