Download or read book San Elizario written by Rick Hendricks and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This first documented history of San Elizario in the Spanish, Mexican, and American periods to 1900, utilizes Spanish and Mexican sources, particularly the Juarez Archive. It reveals that Spanish officials constructed this 1200 square foot fortress primarily to administer an Apache peace colony, in time the largest on the northern frontier. In the Mexican period the presidio spawned a town that later became San Elizario. With the termination of the peace program in 1831 and the ever increasing assignment of presidio personnel to reinforce New Mexico's defenses against the Texans, the town then assumed the responsibility for its own defense, and the presidio fell into ruins. Today San Elizario is a rapidly growing community with a history that began with a presidio; its soldiers and their families laid the foundation of a modern town."