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At this site, the historic settlement of Frontera was established by T. Frank White in August 1848. White moved here shortly after the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo transferred this part of the El Paso del Norte region to the United States, but before the border between Texas and New Mexico had been established. He served as magistrate of the New Mexico territory, U.S. customs collector, and proprietor of a trading post and ranch. Frontera was located at the southwestern end of the Franklin Mountains, directly across from the 4,700-foot Cerro de Muleros (now known as Sierra de Cristo Rey). White’s trading post and ranch were situated directly on the bank of the Rio Grande at Mule Ford, a local river crossing on the Chihuahua Trail (now part of the El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail). White lost his political influence when the compromise of 1850 allocated this site to Texas. Frontera continued to exist for a few more years because the United States boundary commission maintained an astronomical observatory here while it surveyed the United States-Mexico border in the early 1850s. White finally sold his property to El Paso County Judge Henry Dexter in 1855 and left the area. The Dexter family used the land as a ranch and a mail station and the name Frontera gradually disappeared from the map. Though short lived, Frontera was one of the first five American settlements in this region, along with Franklin (El Paso), Hart’s Mill, Concordia and Magoffinsville. It might have become the heart of a thriving metropolis had the compromise of 1850 placed it on the New Mexico side of the border. Instead, it was overshadowed by Franklin and eventually absorbed into the modern city of El Paso. (2013) |
