EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14\/CBS4) \u2014 Concordia Cemetery isn\u2019t just a quiet patch of El Paso history \u2014 it\u2019s a full-on time capsule, with more than 60,000 burials stretching back to the city\u2019s earliest days.<\/p>\n
Local history enthusiast Caleb Lara kicked off a new monthly segment on El Paso\u2019s past from inside the cemetery, calling it the perfect starting point for anyone trying to understand how the city became what it is today. The cemetery\u2019s first burial dates to 1856, and Lara said it became public in the 1880s. He described the way Concordia is laid out with different sections and groupings as a reflection of the culture and structure of the growing city itself.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s really a great way to get a scope of everything that has happened,\u201d Lada said, pointing to the range of people buried there, \u201cfrom immigrants to Wild Wild West cowboys to societies to lawmen.<\/p>\n
For the first installment, Lara focused on a man he said was foundational to El Paso: Benjamin Dowell also known as \u201cUncle Ben,\u201d who was recognized as one of the city\u2019s pioneers. <\/p>\n
Lada said Dow likely arrived in El Paso in the early 1850s, possibly the late 1840s. Born in 1818, Dow was a prisoner of war, and Lada said his military service earned him 160 acres of what is now downtown El Paso.<\/p>\n
That land, Lara said, included the area where the Del Norte Hotel stands today. Dow ran a pub on that corner \u2014 complete with billiards \u2014 along with a grocery store, and he also hosted county meetings there. In 1873, when the city incorporated, Lada said Dow was elected El Paso\u2019s first mayor.<\/p>\n
But for years, Dowell’s final resting place was a mystery.<\/p>\n
Lada said that after the construction of I-10, Dow\u2019s grave was essentially considered missing with no gravestone and many people assumed he was \u201csomewhere in the middle of the street\u201d Lara said.<\/p>\n
That changed a couple of years ago, when survey work and paperwork helped confirm where he was buried. With many gravestones missing across the cemetery, Lada said the process came down to matching records with where bodies were believed to be laid.<\/p>\n
Now, Dowell\u2019s gravesite has been identified, and Lada pointed out that it sits near a pipe coming out of the ground.<\/p>\n
Lara said Dowell died in 1881, a year before El Paso\u2019s \u201cbig boom,\u201d but credited him along with helping establish what became the city charter.<\/p>\n
Beyond Dowell\u2019s story, Lara said Concordia holds the full sweep of El Paso\u2019s past, including the hard chapters. He said the cemetery reflects everything from cowboys to famine to diseases, and the many societies that shaped the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike I said, this is a microcosm where all the different cultures that collide and all the controversy and polar opposites of culture come and rest side by side silently,\u201d Lara said.<\/p>\n
The monthly history segment will continue with more stories from El Paso\u2019s past, digging into the people and moments that helped shape the borderland from pioneer-era politics to the legends of the Wild West.<\/p>\n
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