If you've been driving around El Paso, there's a good chance you've come across these strange billboards that read "Since 1977". These very plain, very straight forward billboards with a white background & blue writing on them.

Yeah...just these standard white billboards with "Since 1977". Of course people wanted to give their hilarious responses on what this mean. But there have been very significant events that have happened in El Paso IN the year 1977.

Jimmy Carter visited in El Paso in 1977

On November 4, 1977, President Jimmy Carter & his first lady, Rosalynn Carter visited El Paso & Juarez to meet with Carmen Romano de Lopez Portillo. Rosalynn became the first U.S. First Lady to meet with her Mexican counterpart and there are photos that were uploaded by the Chamizal National Memorial on their Facebook page.

Burt Reynolds was a commentator for the 1977 Sun Bowl game.

No that's not a joke; THE same Burt Reynolds who starred in films like Smokey and the Bandit & Cannonball Run, was a co-commentator for the Sun Bowl game that aired on CBS on December 31, 1977.

This photo by the El Paso History Alliance even proves it

These 2 important pieces of El Paso was founded in 1977

The El Paso Museum of Archeology & even the Sun Metro bus company were founded in 1977. While they may not have the same "impact" as a presidential visit or the visit of a movie star, these two establishments are still open today.

Sun Metro Bus
Emily Slape
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El Paso saw some huge names in music come through town in 1977

Alice Cooper, Aerosmith, even Rush all came through El Paso at the heights of their career in 1977.

Another important concert that happened in 1977 was the Lawrence Welk concert at the Don Haskins Center on March 4. This concert was quite significant for being the VERY FIRST concert at the Don Haskins Center (it was called the Special Events Center).

Now are any of these events in relation to the "since 1977" billboards? Until we get an answer, I'm going to take a guess and say no. BUT never forget how important 1977 was to the history of El Paso.

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