The story of Tom Lea and the XII Travelers cannot be separated from The Pass of the North where he was born and which he loved so deeply. Nor can this extraordinary artist and author be separated from the history of the Pass which claims him rightfully on equal footing with those famous names who came before. In fact it is not difficult to perceive Tom as the Pass of the North personified; therefore his role in the following history was as natural as it is appropriate. El Pasoans and other Texans owe the late Tom Lea Jr. a debt of gratitude for his rich contributions to American art and literature.

The Pass of the North on the Rio Grande may well have more history per square inch than the entire state of Texas. Here the continental coordinates of “the river” and the “trade route” intersect to mark the historic crossing of Aboriginal America. The signature contour of the Franklin Range and the winding river greeted the first refugees fleeing south from the Bearing Strait millennia ago.

As new cultures took root pre-Columbian traders, known as puchtecas, carried ideas and artifacts through the Pass from Central America deep into what is now the United States. With the advent of the Spaniard in the New World, Cabeza de Vaca and his three companions stopped to rest near the Pass in the fall of 1535 before continuing south to end their eight-year journey.

In 1598 Don Juan de Oñate led a group of settlers through the Pass where he celebrated The First Thanksgiving on his way to New Mexico; thereby establishing the famous Camino Real from Mexico City to Santa Fe. A dazzling cavalcade of adventurous men and women subsequently left boot-heel and wagon track in the river’s mud as they went on to carve their names indelibly in the far-flung history of our region.

At the beginning of the twentieth century this great drama had faded from view but it lived on in recorded history. It fired the imagination of Tom Lea's father (Tom Lea, Sr), early mayor of El Paso, who was the first to suggest that it be given artistic expression within our city. In the 1930’s Gutzon Borglum, sculptor of Mt. Rushmore, (himself a “traveler” through The Pass) conceived a great pageant of history marching in stone relief across El Paso’s mountain landscape…this was unfortunately left unrealized.

But it was the genius of Tom Lea, Jr., nationally recognized artist and author (son of El Paso Mayor Tom Lea, Sr.), that first congealed our past in artistic form and baptized it as “Twelve Travelers Through the Pass of the North”. This slim abbreviated volume with elegant illustrations by the author, published in 1947 by El Paso Electric Company, was destined to become a legendary spotlight upon the singular history of El Paso del Norte.

When sculptor John Houser came to El Paso in 1988 he was in turn overwhelmed with the history of the Pass of the North. In response to city plans for the revitalization of downtown El Paso, Houser began to visualize a heroic dramatization of that history in monumental bronze. As the concept unrolled it was natural that Tom Lea’s “Twelve Travelers” should come to mind. Tom, appreciating both the similarity of Houser’s vision to his own as well as its originality, generously endorsed the concept and allowed the name of his historic publication to serve as the eponymous title for his huge undertaking. This common interest in art and history between the two men is today reflected in friendship and mutual respect and The XII Travelers Memorial of the Southwest has become the centerpiece for El Paso’s revitalization.

Although the two concepts share the same alliterative title, the “Twelve Travelers” of Tom Lea and the “XII Travelers” of John Houser are as individual as the artists themselves. In addition to changing “twelve” to the Roman numeral “XII” Houser’s list of “travelers” is not identical with Tom’s. Monumental sculpture has its own aesthetic imperative and Houser conceived the “travelers” as historic metaphors for their respective periods across an evenly divided time frame extending from 1535 to 1910, thereby giving the memorial a measured symmetry.

Houser is creating a bronze legacy of The Pass of the North for future generations. The first monument in the XII Travelers series, Fray García de San Francisco (founder of the first mission at the Pass of the North in 1659) was unveiled in 1996.

The second monument, the world's largest equestrian bronze, commemorates Don Juan de Oñate who celebrated the First Thanksgiving in 1598 and founded the north-south Camino Real. This 36-foot high, rearing horse and rider was enlarged in Mexico City (1999-2005), cast by Shidoni Foundry, near Santa Fe, New Mexico (2004-2006), and finished, pre-assembled and installed by Eagle Bronze Foundry (Lander, Wyoming). The colossal equestrian bronze was installed at the entrance of the El Paso International Airport on October 31, 2006. It will be dedicated on Saturday, April 21, 2007.

Fray García and Don Juan de Oñate share in the “travelers list” of both artists. They return to the Pass of the North as the vanguard of the XII Travelers Memorial of the Southwest. Their collective title honors the names and contributions of Tom Lea. They await their comrades at the Pass in stoic bronze and bear witness to...a history within a history.

John Sherrill Houser, Project Sculptor
XII Travelers Memorial of the Southwest