Mandy the Mule, a beloved character of old time El Paso
140 years ago trolley cars pulled by mules conveyed passengers across the border
I discovered Mandy the Mule while researching my new cowgirl spy book which takes place in El Paso and Ciudad Juárez in 1906 during the historic meeting of the presidents of the U.S. and Mexico.
I was looking into the history of border crossings between the two cities and discovered a rich history of trolley (streetcar) service in El Paso. I discovered that crossing the border was much easier back then. A lot of people simply boarded a trolley car to get to the other side of the Rio Grande River.
Historian Owen P. White said that El Paso was “the only city in the United States that grew so fast that to get out of the way of itself it had to erect a streetcar line before it built a public school house.” Beginning with the arrival of the railroad to El Paso in 1881, the population grew from 761 to 1,500 within the first month of operation, and the West-Texas boomtown ballooned to just over 10,000 by the time of the 1891 census.
Anticipating the population growth, the El Paso & Juárez Streetcar Line, owned and operated by the El Paso Railway Company, went into service in 1882. The line used mules, the offspring of a donkey and a horse, to pull the trolley cars.
Mandy was one of the mules that pulled the streetcars full of passengers back and forth across the two bridges between El Paso and Juárez. She was well known and widely loved. One folk tale recounted a traveling salesman who was a passenger on Mandy’s trolley one hot afternoon when Mandy decided to stop a while and rest. The impatient passenger told the trolley operator he was in a hurry and asked why the operator wouldn’t hit the mule and make her go.
“Hit Mandy?!” exclaimed the driver, “why if I was to lay a hand on that mule the town wouldn’t stand for it.”
Mandy retired in 1901 when shiny, new electric streetcars replaced her, and the electrification of El Paso’s streets made the animal-drawn vehicles obsolete.
On the first El Paso-Juárez electric trolley run, on January 11, 1902, the electric car rode over the Stanton International Bridge, making El Paso the first city in the world to operate electric trolleys between two countries.
That day Mandy stood on a cart at the rear of the electric car, and along with a 12-piece band and 35 guests, took an hour’s trip to Juárez to celebrate the special occasion.
El Paso ended streetcar service in 1974, after merchants in Juárez complained would-be customers would rather spend their pesos in the boutiques of downtown El Paso than the shops and market squares of Juárez. The city was also looking at the costs of operating an aging fleet and the difficulties inherent to running an international service during a time of increasingly stringent border regulations and protocols.
A restored trolley car and a replica of Mandy were displayed in San Jacinto Plaza for a while, and then for many years on Cleveland Square in downtown El Paso. Her image is now embedded into a fence surrounding the El Paso History Museum.
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Cowboy/Cowgirl lingo of the day:
Muleskinner – A person who drives and usually rides in a wagon pulled by mules.
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If you’re in the Nederland area on May 14, stop by Busey Brews for Ladies’ Night at 5 pm. The Nederland Library is hosting ‘Cowgirl Cocktail Trivia Night’! Prizes, special cocktails, and laughs guaranteed.
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Sources:
https://elpasotimes.typepad.com/morgue/2013/05/1969-mandy-honored-in-new-location.html
El Paso Museum of History