El Paso Cooked 4000 Pounds Of Meat In A 75ft Long Trench For Scenic Drive

El Paso has no shortage of iconic landmarks. But few carry the kind of weight, beauty, and history that Scenic Drive does. Whether you have lived here your entire life or are visiting for the first time, that winding road carved into the face of the Franklin Mountains has a way of stopping you in your tracks. Two countries. Three states. One view that somehow never gets old.

But how did it get there? The story of Scenic Drive is one of vision, civic pride, political hustle, hard labor, and yes, a barbecue so massive it would make a Texas state fair blush.

El Paso Leaders Dreamt About This Road Before Your Great-Grandparents Were Born

The idea of a scenic overlook along the base of the Franklin Mountains did not start in 1920. It started in 1881. That is nearly four decades before a single worker ever touched the mountain. As early as that year, El Paso leaders were already pushing for a place along the Franklins that could give visitors a sweeping panoramic view of the region. The concept sat in the back pocket of city planning conversations for years, waiting for the right moment.

That moment came on four wheels.

The Automobile Changed Everything

By the early 1900s, car culture was transforming how Americans experienced their cities and landscapes. People were not just moving from point A to point B anymore. They were driving for the pleasure of it. The idea of a road that existed purely to be beautiful suddenly made a lot more sense.

In 1920, the El Paso City Council and Mayor Charles Davis approved the construction of Scenic Drive. The project broke ground in March of that year and was completed by October, a remarkable pace given what workers were actually up against.

Serious El Pasoans Got Behind It

Before the road became a reality, it needed champions. It had plenty.

Mayor C.E. Kelly's administration had enthusiastically pushed for the construction of Scenic Drive years before it was finally approved. Tom Lea Sr., who ran for mayor in 1915, also backed the project. Hughes D. Slater, the editor and owner of the El Paso Herald, used his platform to advocate for public parks and points of interest across the city. Urban planner George E. Kessler included the concept in his formal "City Plan of El Paso, Texas," referring to it as "mountain drive," though he insisted that nothing permanent should be built on the Franklins until the city had the funds to do it right.

These were not casual supporters. These were people who understood that El Paso was growing fast and deserved infrastructure worthy of its landscape.

El Paso Threw a Massive Party to Sell the Dream

Before the road existed, before a single dollar was allocated, Mayor Kelly and civic organizer Peter E. Kern decided to throw a public celebration on October 9, 1914, to build community excitement around the idea. What they pulled off was genuinely extraordinary.

Kern organized a free barbecue that included 6,000 loaves of bread, 4,000 pounds of meat, and four barrels of pickles. Children got candy, soda, and ice cream. Adults drank beer and ate barbecue cooked in a 75-foot long trench dug into the ground. Two Fort Bliss military bands provided live music. Electric lights and red lanterns were strung along the first stretch of the proposed road to illuminate the autumn night.

And Mayor Kelly himself asked El Pasoans to do something that was equal parts poetic and practical. He requested that residents leave their lights on and pull up their shades, so that anyone standing on the mesa above could look down and see the full glow of the city spread below them, proof of the panoramic wonder they were working to preserve.

Building It Was No Small Thing

When construction finally began in 1920, workers faced one of the more demanding road projects in the region's history. More than a mile of the road had to be carved directly from solid rock on the slopes of Mt. Franklin. Workers excavated more than 26,000 cubic yards of solid rock, 5,800 cubic yards of loose rock, and 3,500 cubic yards of caliche. A chain gang assisted with early construction. Civil engineer R.E. Hardaway served as the consulting and locating engineer, with two separate contractors handling the east and west sides of the road.

When it was finished in October 1920, the 1.82-mile drive reached an elevation of 4,222 feet, sitting 500 feet above the Rio Grande. All of that for $200,000. Roughly $3.5 million in today's dollars for what became one of the defining features of the city.

The New Deal Left Its Mark Here Too

The road that opened in 1920 was functional but rough. In 1932, the city contracted to widen and pave it. Then in 1934, Civilian Conservation Corps Company 855 out of Fort Bliss carried out additional culvert work on the road, adding drainage infrastructure to manage the mountain runoff that El Paso still grapples with today. The Franklin Mountains funnel enormous amounts of water down during monsoon season, and that challenge did not start in the modern era.

That Fort Bliss connection gives Scenic Drive a New Deal chapter that most El Pasoans have never heard of.

The Overlook on Scenic Drive Has Its Own Story

Murchison Rogers Park, the beloved overlook at the southern tip of the Franklins, did not open until 1963. It is named for El Paso pioneer and businessman Samuel Macintosh Murchison. But the most interesting part of its origin is how it was funded.

His wife Louise, alongside members of the Women's Department of the Chamber of Commerce, led a grassroots fundraising campaign that gathered small donations from El Paso citizens to make the overlook park possible. Decades later, in 2017, Samuel's granddaughter Isha Rogers launched a similar campaign to redesign the park into a fully accessible 21st-century overlook. In recognition of the family's ongoing civic contributions, the city renamed the park to honor both generations, which is why it carries the Murchison Rogers name today.

The 100th Anniversary Almost Happened Without Anyone Noticing

Scenic Drive quietly turned 100 years old in October 2020, right in the middle of COVID-19 gathering restrictions. The milestone passed with almost no public acknowledgment. It was not until January 30, 2022 that El Paso City Representatives Alexsandra Annello and Peter Svarzbein organized a proper ceremony, unveiling a commemorative plaque at the top of the route to finally mark the centennial. Better late than never for a road that earned it.

It Is Still One of the Most Unique Views in the United States

To this day, Scenic Drive remains one of the very few spots in the entire country where you can look out and see two countries and three states simultaneously. Every Sunday, the road closes to car traffic as part of Scenic Sundays, giving walkers, runners, cyclists, and anyone who just wants to breathe in the view a chance to experience it at their own pace.

The pioneers who carved that road out of the Franklins over 100 years ago, and the mayor who asked a whole city to leave its lights on and pull up its shades for a party celebrating a road that did not yet exist, would not be surprised that it turned out this way. They always knew what was up there.

They just had to convince everyone else.

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