The El Paso Salt War of 1877 has gone down in history as the 
spontaneous "action of a mindless rabble," but as author Paul Cool 
deftly demonstrates, the episode was actually an insurgency, "the 
product of a deliberate, community-based decision squarely in the 
tradition of the American nation's original fight for self-government."

    The Paseños (local Mexican Americans) had held common 
ownership of the immense salt lakes at the base of the Guadalupe 
Mountains since the time of Spanish rule. They believed their title 
was confirmed in the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo. However, to the 
American businessmen who saw in the white expanse a cash crop 
that could make them rich in the years following the American Civil 
War, ownership appeared up for grabs. After years of struggle among 
Anglo politicians and speculators eager to seize the lakes, an Austin 
banker staked a legal claim in 1877, and his son-in-law, Charles 
Howard, started to enforce it. Cool chronicles the ensuing popular 
uprising that disrupted established governmental authority in El Paso 
for twelve weeks.

    Unique features of this pioneering book include the author's 
employment of previously untapped sources and the first thorough 
and systematic use of familiar ones, notably the government report 
El Paso Troubles in Texas, to create this detailed study of the war. 
First-person accounts from reports and newspaper items create a 
landmark day-by-day account of the San Elizario battle, including 
the location of the Texas Ranger positions.

    This fast-paced account not only corrects the record of this 
historical episode but will also resonate in the context of today's 
racial and ethnic tensions along the U.S.-Mexico border.

_________________________________________________________

PAUL COOL, a social security administrator and former Army 
Reserve officer who lives in Eldersburg, Maryland, has an avid 
interest in the borderlands frontier.


Number Eleven: Canseco-Keck History Series



What people are saying about this book

"No previous work on the Salt War has mined such a quarry of 
primary sources, explicated the political power plays (involving both 
Tejanos and Anglos) in the conflict with such clarity, interpreted the 
insurgency of those relying on the salt lakes so incisively, and 
chronicled the aftermath that the episode had on the common people 
of the El Paso Valley so skillfully. The book is destined to become the 
definitive treatment of the subject."—Arnoldo De León, Angelo State 
University

"The author elegantly navigates the shaky alliances, the deep 
enmities, the hubris of some and the courage of others in the struggle 
over control and use of the salt lakes near El Paso. The Salt War ranks 
with the Lincoln County War in its drama and complexity, and in its 
evidence of a troubled American past with issues that reverberate into 
the 21st century. This is an authoritative and important work by a 
gifted scholar."—Paula Mitchell Marks, St. Edward's University


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