Alligators once lived here in San Jacinto Plaza, the historic park at the corner of Oregon and Mills in the heart of Downtown El Paso, Texas. This small square has served many purposes: when the U.S. government leased land from Smith's ranch for the first Post opposite El Paso (meaning El Paso del Norte, later renamed Ciudad Juarez), U.S. Army troops drilled here. The city acquired this property in 1881 from William T. Smith; Smith had bought it from the heirs of Juan Maria Ponce de Leon, who had owned the spot since 1827, and the square had been the corrals for de León’s ranch.
City crews cleared and cleaned the dry, sandy, mesquite-filled ground, and J. Fisher Satterwaite, El Paso Parks and Streets Commissioner, contracted with Fisher Satterthwaite to create beauty from that desert patch. By 1883 the plaza was surrounded by a fence, a walled pond had been created, a gazebo erected and 75 Chinese Elm trees were planted; Satterthwaite then introduced three alligators. In 1903 the City Council officially named the park in honor of the Battle of San Jacinto, when Texas successfully fought for its independence.
Picture the walled pond, the gazebo, and those seventy-five Chinese elms that once transformed this dusty corner.