Chamizal National Memorial — Attraction in El Paso

Nice park, with a cool history, within sight of the Mexican border. In fact, 60 years ago, this park was actually located inside Mexico -- that's the whole purpose of the park. In the mid 19th century the border was set at the Rio Grande, just like it is now. The only problem was, the river moved, leaving this piece of Mexico on the "wrong" side of the river. There was a similar American plot nearby which suffered the same fate, so Mexico and the US agreed to a land swap back in 1963, which created this park. I visited in May 2021, and even though Texas is basically re-opened again, the visitors center here at this park remains covid closed. This is a shame, because (1) I would have like to have seen the historical displays inside, and (2) there is no National Park Passport stamping available. Unlike some parks with limited visitor service which at least keep the passport stamping available, you will not be able to get a Chamizal stamp, so I reduced my rating on this place from 5 to 4. C'mon National Park Service, you...

A place where a bit of history may have been forgotten to most outside of the New Mexico, West Texas region.

The reasons for 4 stars was the reconstruction of the museum and the small size of the shop. The volunteer was very knowledgeable and informative.

Although there were newspaper articles and small bits about the history, I cannot recall ever hearing about it in any of my history classes. It’s actually the 4th part of finalizing the US/MX border. The first the original border (I believe the Guadeloupe Hidalgo Treaty; second a correction by MX & US surveyors because of a ‘mapping error’; third the Gadsden Purchase and finally the Chamizal Convention.

The location is interesting because of it being within site of the Bridge of the Americas. Amazing the amount of traffic.

Plenty of parking under normal operating hours. There is some construction in the area, but by putting the exact address into Google Maps, we had no issue making it to the Memorial.

I would really recommend visiting the little...

The park is beautiful and well maintained. I enjoy taking my dogs here for a walk. I love the fact that they have an evening park ranger, it makes it feel safe. What does make me upset is that they keep closing the park earlier and earlier. The park for a long time would close at 10 pm, next thing I know the time was changed to 9 pm if I recall correctly. "Winter hours", it was changed till 7pm. Now a lot of people who work get off from work between 5-6pm. This does not give the opportunity for those who work to attend the park regularly. Whoever is managing the park hours is clearly not taking into consideration the fact that people work. They actually had a sign posted stating that April 1st park would be closing at 9pm. Unfortunately, they removed the sign. I called today only to find out the park hours would remain the same for spring. It was very upsetting as I was really looking forward to these hours. I will be writing a letter soon and encourage others to...