Tornillo, TX

Tornillo is an El Paso County border community and census-designated place of 1,432 residents in the 2020 census. It sits about 35 miles south of El Paso, with the Rio Grande roughly two miles south and Interstate 10 about two miles north. The Tornillo-Guadalupe International Bridge connects the area with Guadalupe, Chihuahua, giving this small farming place an international edge.

The town was platted in 1909 by the Tornillo Townsite Company, and its first post office opened that year. After Elephant Butte Dam and Reservoir reshaped water management in 1916, Tornillo became part of the Rio Grande Irrigation Project. Cotton arrived at large scale in 1918; pecans became another major crop by the 1970s. The bridge and the fields put Tornillo in a different kind of border landscape, where water, traffic, and school routes overlap. State Highway 20 and the Southern Pacific Railroad pass through town, while Tornillo Independent School District, established as an independent district in 1960, serves the local school community.