Castner Range National Monument

Castner Range National Monument protects 6,672 acres of the Chihuahuan Desert encompassing the southeastern section of the Franklin Mountains in El Paso, TX. The monument lands served as an artillery and munitions training and testing site for 40 years from 1926-1966 as a detached portion of Fort Bliss, the second largest United States Army post. At least 41 archaeological sites associated with human activity have been identified within the monument, including three sites on the National Register of Historic Places: Fusselman Canyon Rock Art District, the Northgate Site, and the Castner Range Archeological District. Artifacts discovered within the monument include hearths, bedrock mortars, rock shelters, projectile points, stone tools, petroglyphs, pictographs, pottery sherds, and burial sites. Castner Range is currently managed by the U.S. Army as the only land conservation national monument within the Department of Defense. Most of the monument is closed to the public due to the presence of unexploded ordnance and will remain inaccessible until remediation efforts can be completed.

The oldest rocks in the El Paso area are found in the Castner Limestone formation of Castner Range, which formed from alternating layers of lime and clay mud deposited in a shallow sea 1.3 billion years ago. Humans first migrated to the El Paso area during the Paleoindian Period (9500-6000 BCE) when hunter-gatherers followed now-extinct megafauna into the region. The earliest evidence of human occupation within Castner Range dates to the Early Archaic Period around 6000 BCE. Distinct projectile point styles and an absence of ceramics are associated with the Archaic Period (6000 BCE-250 CE), which is locally divided into four phases: Gardner Springs (6000-4300 BCE), Keystone (4300-2600 BCE), Fresnal (2600-900 BCE), and Hueco (900 BCE-250 CE). During the Archaic Period, populations grew and condensed, mobility decreased, trade increased, and domesticated plants eventually came to supplement subsistence on hunting and gathering. Pictographs at White Rock Cave exhibit similarities to those at Mexican sites indicating that migration may have occurred from Mexico to Castner Range during this time.

The Formative Period (250-1550 CE) is defined by the presence of ceramics and is locally divided into three phases: Mesilla (250-1100 CE), Doña Ana (1100-1200 CE), and El Paso (1200-1450 CE). Introduced via trade with other cultures such as the Mimbres and Casas Grandes (Paquimé) peoples, ceramics allowed surplus food and water to be stored which further increased sedentism and led to the formation of villages. Around the end of the El Paso phase, indigenous peoples abandoned settlements in the region for reasons that are not well understood. It is speculated that climate change, internal conflict, competition with outside groups for resources, and the breakdown of trade networks may have contributed to this outcome. By the time Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca passed through the area in 1535, the El Paso Valley was inhabited by the primarily nomadic hunter-gatherer Manso, Suma, and Jumano peoples. As the Spanish encroached on the area later in the 16thcentury, the populations of these tribes quickly declined due to disease, the slave trade, and warfare, with some joining the Apache and Comanche who migrated into the region around this time. Castner Range remains important to the Pueblo and Apache peoples, the Comanche Nation, the Hopi Tribe, and the Kiowa Indian Tribe of Oklahoma. Every spring, Tigua people from Ysleta del Sur Pueblo in El Paso participate in the annual Poppy Festival to celebrate the blooming of golden poppies on Castner Range. 

In 1581, the Rodríguez-Chamuscado Expedition reached El Paso del Norte, or “The Pass of the North” (present-day Ciudad Juárez), reviving Spanish interest in the region. In 1598, just 22 miles southeast of Castner Range, Juan de Oñate y Salazar declared La Toma, or “The Taking,” claiming all territory north of the Rio Grande for King Philip II of Spain. The El Paso area became part of Mexico after the country declared independence from Spain in 1821. The lands changed hands again in 1836, when the Republic of Texas designated the Rio Grande as its southern and western border, although Mexico continued to claim the territory. The annexation of Texas by the United States in 1845 triggered the subsequent Mexican-American War which was ended by the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, confirming the final transfer of the lands.

Under Spanish and Mexican rule, the San Andrés Salt Trail (SAST) at the eastern boundary of Castner Range was used as the path to the Salinas de San Andrés, or “San Andrés Salines,” where salt could be gathered for free. When Texas joined the U.S., James Magoffin and other Texan-American settlers staked claims on the salt flats to charge fees for salt gathering. In 1854, Magoffin heard that a large group of Hispanos from Doña Ana had set out to gather salt so he recruited the local sheriff and his posse to confront them. After three Hispanos were fatally wounded in the ensuing gun fight, the courts ordered Magoffin to pay damages and nullified his land claim, reestablishing free public access to the salt flats.

The Mescalero Apache used Castner Range and the Franklin Mountains as a base for raiding nearby settlements until they were forced onto a reservation in southern New Mexico in 1883. After this, non-indigenous criminals continued to use the mountains to escape the reach of the law. In 1890, cattle rustlers shot and killed Deputy U.S. Marshall and Texas Ranger Charles Fusselman in a Castner Range pass now known as Fusselman Canyon. In 1909, the El Paso Tin Mining and Smelting Company was established near Castner Range but the mine shut down in 1915 due to insufficient tin yields. In 1942, it reopened in response to the need for tin during World War II but closed again within the year. The Indian Spring Mine, Indian Peak Mine, and Indian Spring Well also operated near Castner Range.

In 1926, the U.S. Army post Fort Bliss acquired 3,500 acres of Castner Range, which was named after Brigadier General Joseph Compton Castner, who served as commanding officer of the post at the time. In 1939, 4,828 acres were purchased and added to bring the total acreage to 8,328. From 1926-1966, the land was used by the Army as an artillery and munitions training and testing site to prepare soldiers to fight in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. The development of El Paso neighborhoods to the south and east of Castner Range led to most of the site being decommissioned in 1966. Only the small “Vietnam Village” close-combat training area remained in use until Woodrow Bean Transmountain Drive was completed through the Franklin Mountains and Castner Range in 1969.

In 1971, the Department of the Army (DOA) reported Castner Range as “excess,” and transferred ownership of the lands to the General Services Administration (GSA) for disposal. After the Army completed a surface sweep of the 1,230 acres east of the US 54 Freeway and a 17-acre portion on Woodrow Bean Transmountain Drive, the GSA conveyed these lands to the City of El Paso and the Department of the Interior (DOI), respectively. The City of El Paso proceeded to sell off most of the land east of the freeway and acquired the 17-acre parcel from the DOI under the Lands-to-Parks program in 1975. The El Paso Museum of Archaeology opened on the 17-acre plot in 1977 and the National Border Patrol Museum was later added in 1994. In 1978, Dick Knapp, co-owner of most of the Franklin Mountains, was discovered bulldozing the top of North Franklin Mountain to build another communications tower. This prompted about 15,000 people to sign a petition for the Franklin Mountains to be protected as a state park and the Texas Legislature granted this protection in 1979. The Legislature also passed a law allowing Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to incorporate Castner Range into Franklin Mountains State Park but the presence of live munitions at the site prevented the land transfer. In 1983, the GSA voided the Declaration of Excess for the remaining 7,081 acres of Castner Range due to the unexploded ordnance and returned the lands to the DOA.

In 1985, the Wilderness Park Coalition, later renamed the Franklin Mountains Wilderness Coalition (FMWC), requested that Franklin Mountains State Park acquire Castner Range but, again, contamination of the lands with unexploded ordnance proved an insurmountable issue. Even so, sentiment to protect Castner Range remained strong over the following decades and the El Paso community opposed many development proposals for the middle and eastern portions of the range, including for a Texas Department of Transportation maintenance yard (1986), Cohen Stadium baseball park (1986), a sports-concert arena (1996), and a “high-tech” office center (2005). In 2006, the El Paso City Council passed a resolution to preserve all 7,081 acres of Castner Range from development. The following year, the first annual Poppy Festival was held on the El Paso Museum of Archaeology land adjacent to Castner Range where the FMWC presented El Paso Congressman Silvestre Reyes with a petition seeking his support to preserve Castner Range. In 2010, Congressman Reyes used the 2011 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to secure a $300,000 grant to study means of conservation conveyance for Castner Range. The Castner Conservation Conveyance Committee (“4C’s”) was formed for this purpose. In 2010, the El Paso County Commissioners Court passed a resolution to permanently preserve Castner Range and, in 2011, the Texas Legislature passed a resolution supporting preservation of Castner Range.

In 2012, Congressman Reyes included language in the 2013 NDAA suggesting that Castner Range may be incorporated into the Franklin Mountains State Park, however, the unexploded ordnance continued to prohibit this. Later in the year, President Barack Obama declared 90% of Fort Ord as a national monument, making it the first ordnance-bearing military property to achieve this status. Upon learning this, the 4C’s shifted its focus to acquiring national monument status for Castner Range. The Franklin Mountains Wilderness Coalition, Frontera Land Alliance, Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project, and El Paso Community Foundation all participated in raising awareness and supporting efforts protect Castner Range as a national monument. In 2015, El Paso Congressman Beto O’Rourke introduced the first bill to make Castner Range a national monument and, in 2016, El Paso City Council approved a resolution urging that the range be protected as a national monument. In 2017, Congressman O’Rourke included a provision in the 2018 NDAA prohibiting the construction of new roads or buildings on Castner Range. In honor of Earth Day on April 22, 2021, El Paso Congresswoman Veronica Escobar introduced a bill to make Castner Range a national monument. On March 21, 2023, President Joe Biden established Castner Range National Monument, the first national monument directly managed by the U.S. military since national battlefields were transferred to the National Park Service in the 1930s. At the time of the monument’s designation, over 4,800 undiscovered munitions were estimated to exist within its boundaries. The majority of the monument will remain inaccessible to the public until the Army remediates the area of live munitions and ordnance in compliance with the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability (Superfund) Act.