Chamizal Park - Ciudad Juarez, Mexico

On pretty days, Parque Chamizal is where hundreds of Juarenses come to relax with the family. No alcohol is permitted in the park. There are numerous areas for children to swing, ride slides, and climb jungle gyms. The park is approximately 800 acres.

This 800 acres has been both part of Mexico and part of the United States.

At the time the Rio Grande River was designated to be the border between the United States and Mexico, this land was on the Mexican side of the border.  Over time, though, the meandering course of the Rio Grande River shifted southward placing it in the United States.  Mexico filed a claim with the United States government in 1865, but it took a hundred years to get the matter straightened out.

Finally, in 1964 President Kennedy and Presidente Lopez Mateos agreed upon the final terms for its transference back to Mexico. In October, 1967 President Lyndon Johnson officially returned the land to Presidente Gustavo Diaz Ordaz.

This last photograph is the park as seen from the entrance of the Archaeology Museum.

You can read more about Chamizal Park in Tony Porco's article about the park and the Archeology Museum now published on the bootsnall.com web site.