Hundreds of border Mexicans gathered here on July 1897 to bid Teresita Urrea farewell. During the 1890s, she was the figurehead of the Teresista movement against the government of Porfirio Díaz. In 1911, Maderista troops were allowed to pass through this depot to be rapidly deployed against the PLM revolutionaries in Baja California. In 1915, Carrancista troops were transported through here to Sonora to be used against Pancho Villa’s forces. Villa saw this as a great betrayal by the United States and later attacked Columbus, N.M. The Union Depot tower was used as a vantage point to view the battles in Juárez. The present towers
were originally constructed in 1906.
