The Story of The San Jacinto Gators

Did you know that San Jacinto Plaza, right in the heart of El Paso, TX was once home to actual alligators? Yep, we had up to seven gators just chillin' in a pond! With National Alligator Day here, I wanted to look into the history of these Chuco Gators and see what this is all about. I'm sure a lot of El Pasoans know this but hopefully for some of you this is fun new history about The Sun City!

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The El Paso Alligator Pond

The city had a few gators hanging out in the pond back in the day but some of these alligators had pretty interesting stories. The alligators were brought to the plaza in the 1880's, this is just a few of their stories.

Back in 1952, there was an alligator named Oscar who was used by some very brave college students for a pretty terrifying prank. Someone took him to Texas Western College and left him in geology Professor Howard Quinn's office, and I can only imagine Professor Quinn probably soiled himself. Another time, an alligator was found in the college swimming pool right before an intramural swim meet. This is fun to read about but when you really consider it, this prank could very easily kill someone. Does that make it more fun? Well I shouldn't be the judge of that because I chuckled when I read about this.

One of the earliest gators, Sally, was the star of a weight-guessing contest, with the winner getting $100 and a trip to Mexico. And Minnie, a 54-year-old alligator, laid an egg in 1952 and got really territorial on some park workers who were trying to clean the pond. No one got hurt but they did get very scared.

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Gator Haters

Sadly, the story of our plaza gators isn’t all fun. In March 1953, poor Oscar died after vandals injured him. The thieves tried stealing him from the pond but threw him back in when the cops showed up. Unfortunately, Oscars injuries killed him. But the love for our gators was strong and one brave El Pasoan, Myrtle Price, donated two new gators: Jack and Jill. Despite their popularity, the gators faced constant threats and one alligator was even stoned to death while another was stabbed through the eye.

All of this lead to their move to the El Paso Zoo in 1965. Believe it or not, they even made a brief comeback in 1972 but had to be removed again in 1974 because of more people harassing the poor gators. The pond was then permanently removed.

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Always Remember The Gators

Even though the gators are gone, their memory lives on. Our plaza is still fondly called "La Plaza de los Lagartos," and there’s an amazing fiberglass sculpture by renowned artist Luis Jiménez to honor them. So this National Alligator Day, let’s celebrate this wild and wonderful part of El Paso’s history!