Historic El Paso Site You Probably Don’t Know About

There are historical markers all over the El Paso area and throughout the Borderland. I had never heard of this one though, maybe you haven't either.

El Paso really put the "wild" in the wild west with plenty of options for folks to indulge their various vices, shootouts galore, (El Chuco was once known as the Six Shooter Capital and was the site of one of the wests most infamous gun fights), cattle rustlers and more. This historic marker has to do with rustlers.

If you've ever driven over Trans Mountain road, (aka Woodrow Bean/Trans Mountain Road, aka Loop 375), you have driven right past a historic marker. One that marks the site of an ambush that killed a US Marshall.

What Happened In Fusselman Canyon?

As I said, El Paso was pretty rowdy back in the 1800's, (it still kinda is), and, among other things, horse and cattle rustling was a fairly popular line of work. The canyon, alongside Trans Mountain, was made after a US Marshall murdered down below.

Fusselman Canyon is named after Charles H. Fusselman who was both a Texas Ranger and a US Marshall from Marfa. Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time, he happened to be in El Paso for a court case when a rancher reported his horses and cattle had been stolen.

Fusselman, along with 2 other men, went after the rustlers.

READ MORE: El Paso's Historic "Firsts"

The thieves intended to drive the horses and cattle through the canyon, along the path of today’s Transmountain Road, through Smugglers’ Gap, and into the Rio Grande bosque near Canutillo. The deputies encountered the outlaws’ camp and were met with a barrage of gunfire. When Fusselman was fatally shot in the head, the other two men fled the scene allowing the outlaws to escape. - EPCC Library

Fusselman’s body was later recovered and for the next decade, lawmen searched for the rustlers. Their leader was eventually caught, tried and sentenced to death. He was hung in El Paso on January 6, 1900.