Topo map of Smeltertown, Texas, from 1955 1:24000
USGS topo map with 1975 updates. The small area labeled "La Guna" is now known as "La Calavera" or "Skull Canyon", for its location by the Smeltertown Cemetery.
Smeltertown was a residential community in
El Paso County,
Texas,[1] housing the workers of the
ASARCO smelter and their families, between
El Paso and the Texas borders with Mexico and New Mexico.
With only one small neighborhood, now known as the La Calavera Historical Neighborhood,[2] remaining since the Smelter's closure, Smeltertown is sometimes referred to as a
ghost town.[3]
Abandoned baja part of Smeltertown is left of center here, with the American Dam Headquarters (white building) in it, near the
American Dam on the Rio Grande, in this aerial view from over downtown El Paso. La Calavera is at upper right.
Looking down into La Calavera Historic Neighborhood from beside Executive Center Blvd.
Smeltertown cemetery with ASARCO smelter chimneys in the background, still operating, in 1972.
The new (in 2019)
Border West Expresswaysingle-point urban interchange – El Paso's first SPUI – is at Executive Center Blvd., which parallels San Marcos Drive of the La Calavera Historic Neighborhood of Smeltertown. The Smeltertown Cemetery is visible at the bottom by the expressway.