Asarco Stacks 2013

Asarco Stacks 2013

The image shows the Asarco smokestacks in 2013 - leftovers from the Asarco smelting site. They were torn down later that year. This industrial area was called Smeltertown. It was situated west of downtown El Paso and it came into being with the construction of the Kansas City Consolidated Smelting and Refining Company (later the American Smelting and Refining Company, or ASARCO) copper and lead smelter, in 1887. In the 1880s the Mexican employees of the smelter began building houses west of the smelter, beside the Rio Grande. School, church and post office were added later. The facility was a custom smelter that processed several different metals from ore that came from diverse sites. Although lead and zinc were extracted at the site, copper was the main product in the later years of operation. In 1945 the El Paso Herald-Post called attention to the poverty in Smeltertown and in the early 1970s it became the center of an environmental controversy. ASARCO was charged with violations of the Texas Clean Air Act. It was also found out that 72 out of 500 residents suffered from lead poisoning due to a huge amount of lead emission between 1969 and 1971. Another study confirmed “undue lead absorption” of people living in a one-mile radius in 1975. In the same year an injunction ordered ASARCO to modernize and make environmental improvements, which were not done due to the high costs. Against their wishes the residents were forced to move; their former homes were razed, as well as the business buildings and stacks, leaving only the abandoned school and church buildings to mark the site of El Paso's first major industrial community.

Area: Central / Smeltertown

Source: C.L. Sonnichsen Special Collections, University of Texas at El Paso Library. Collection Name: Asarco Stacks 2013. Photo ID: IMG_4488.

Uploaded by: UTEP Library Special Collections

Comments

Add a comment
Thank you for your comment

Report this entry

Choose the most important reason for this report

Your name

Your email address

Optional detail

Thank you for your report

More from the same community-collection

American Dam - Coffer-dam and piers

American Dam - Coffer-dam and piers; view from west side of ...

American Canal - Work in progress

American Canal - Work in progress; view south. Photo taken on ...

American Dam

American Dam - View from southeast. Photo taken on March 20, ...

American Canal - Excavating inlet

American Canal - Excavating inlet. Photo taken on March 29, 1937 ...

American Dam - Setting first forms

American Dam - Setting first forms, Pier No. 9. Photo taken on ...

American Dam - Pier placement

American Dam - Forms for piers #8 & 9 in place. Pouring floor in ...

American Dam

American Dam - First pour into forms. Piers No. 7, 8, & 9. Mixer ...

American Dam - Insley Skimmer

American Dam - Insley Skimmer excavating for Rip Rap, Unit 2. ...

American Dam - Insley Skimmer

American Dam - Insley Skimmer excavating for Rip Rap, Unit 2. ...

American Dam - Setting Well-points - El Paso, Texas

American Dam - Setting Well-points, south end of Unit 1. Photo ...

American Dam - Placing Bonded Rip Rap

American Dam - Placing Bonded Rip Rap, Unit 3. Photo taken on ...

American Dam - Placing Bonded Rip Rap

American Dam - Placing Bonded Rip Rap, Units 2 and 3. Photo ...

American Dam - Placing Bonded Rip Rap

American Dam - Placing Bonded Rip Rap, Units 2 and 3. Photo ...

American Dam - Placing Bonded Rip Rap

American Dam - Placing Bonded Rip Rap, Unit 2. Photo taken on ...

American Dam - Pier Construction

American Dam - Piers No. 4, 5, and 6 ready to pour; survey party ...

American Dam

American Dam - View from west end of foot-bridge. Photo taken on ...

American Canal Inlet

American Canal Inlet - Moretrench well-points. Photo taken on ...

American Canal Inlet

American Canal Inlet - Moretrench Wellpoints in inlet area. ...

American Canal

April 19 1937, More Trench at well point, inlet area American ...

American Canal

April 19 1937, American Dam pouring pier at No. 4,5,6 mixer at ...

American Canal

April 19 1937, American Dam sewer manhole construction at No.1 ...

American Canal

April 21 1937, American Dam concrete entering floor slab W1/2 of ...

American Canal

April 21 1937, American Dam concrete entering floor slab W1/2 of ...

home.search_collection