El Paso

El Paso Unincorporated

Originally called "Peach Orchard Gap" the settlement received its present name "El Paso" (Spanish for "the pass") after it relocated about 1835, at the foot of Cadron Ridge and a second ridge known as Bull Mountain. It was the the center of the territory that is now White, Jackson, Pulaski and Independence Counties. On December 12, 1860, the Arkansas Legislature passed an act to establish a Des Arc and Dardanelle railroad which was to come through El Paso. The route was surveyed and the right-of-way cleared, but the Civil War came along and plans were changed. The El Paso post office was established in 1871. In 1893 the town was platted. In 1890 the population was 863, and in 1910 it was 814.
Information provided by Hugh B. Anderson son of Reverand Ernest Anderson, his father, a resident of the area for 96 years.