ASARCO Smelting Site, El Paso, Texas 1910

The picture shows the ASARCO smelting site in El Paso, Texas in the 1910s. ASARCO is a mining, smelting and refining company, that mines and processes primarily copper. It is subject to considerable litigation over pollution. Smeltertown in El Paso was closed in 1999, after it was revealed that the plant was used to illegally dispose of hazardous waste. Since the beginning of the smelter at this site in 1887 the company has always been in the center of several controversies about health, living and working conditions. In the 1910s for example, the workers and their families lived in simple adobe buildings, where dirt was everywhere and diseases bred.

Area: Central / Smeltertown

Collection: Aultman Collection

Source: El Paso Public Library

Uploaded by: El Paso Museum of History