Activating El Paso’s History for the Public Good
A multidisciplinary educational and cultural nonprofit that uses history, archives, media, and entrepreneurship education to serve the public.
Builders of the Desert is a civic nonprofit transforming El Paso’s past into public archives, cultural programs, and shared experiences that strengthen education, entrepreneurship, and community life. Preserving local knowledge for future generations.
Through public archives, oral histories, curriculum development, and storytelling, we transform the past into a living resource for the Borderland.
Watch Episodes
Explore conversations with community leaders, historians, and families preserving El Paso’s story.
Explore the History Board
Browse digitized archives, historic photos, architectural drawings, and local heritage materials.
Submit a Story
Share a memory, photo, artifact, or family history. Every contribution strengthens our public archive.
About Builders of the Desert
Builders of the Desert is a civic nonprofit dedicated to strengthening El Paso’s sense of place, pride, and shared identity by activating history as a living public resource.
We use education, storytelling, art, and archival work as tools to bring people together; across neighborhoods, professions, generations, and backgrounds, around the stories that shaped the Borderland. Our work is designed not for a single audience, but for the city as a whole: educators and students, entrepreneurs and professionals, families, visitors, and lifelong El Pasoans.
What began as a documentary initiative has grown into a broader civic platform. Today, Builders of the Desert creates public-facing resources, experiences, and spaces where history is not simply preserved, but experienced, as a guide for understanding modern challenges, civic responsibility, and cultural continuity.
We document and interpret El Paso’s past through oral-history interviews with community members, families, historians, architects, and civic leaders, alongside the digitization of photographs, programs, yearbooks, and archival materials. These primary sources form the foundation for public archives, creative works, and educational resources that are accessible to all.
Our work takes many forms:
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Public-access archives and community memory projects
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Art films, documentaries, and visual storytelling
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Curriculum and learning resources for educators and students
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Civic programs and business-networking events that connect past builders to present-day leadership
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Cultural experiences that invite residents and visitors to engage deeply with El Paso’s heritage
Rather than treating history as a static subject, we use it as an experiential teacher; one that helps communities reflect, learn, and imagine forward. Through this approach, history becomes a shared civic language that fosters understanding, pride, and collective stewardship of place.
Builders of the Desert operates on a long-term, phased model of research, documentation, and public engagement. As work progresses, materials are released through archives, public programs, media, and community partnerships. Timelines evolve based on access, collaboration, and funding, ensuring the work remains responsible, inclusive, and grounded in public benefit.
Our Civic Pillars
We use history, culture, and learning to serve El Paso as a whole.
Education & Public Learning
We use history as an experiential teacher, transforming research, archives, and local stories into public resources that support educators, students, and lifelong learners across the Borderland.
Entrepreneurship & Civic Leadership
We highlight El Paso’s builders, businesses, and civic leaders to inspire modern entrepreneurship, professional collaboration, and leadership grounded in place, legacy, and community responsibility.
Heritage Archives & Museum
We preserve El Paso’s collective memory through oral histories, photographs, documents, and lived experience; building public-access archives that reflect the people who shaped the city.
Arts, Media & Cultural Expression
Through films, visual storytelling, and creative work, we translate history into shared cultural experiences that foster pride, reflection, and connection to El Paso’s heritage.
Civic Work in Progress
A transparent view into our ongoing civic and cultural work, research, documentation, public learning, and community collaboration across El Paso.
Builders of the Desert operates as a long-term civic initiative. Our work unfolds in phases, beginning with research and documentation, expanding into public archives and learning resources, and culminating in programs, exhibitions, and shared civic experiences.
This section reflects what we are actively building now, how the public can participate, and how today’s work becomes tomorrow’s shared record.
Current Focus: Oral Histories
What we are building right now
Builders of the Desert’s current work reflects the earliest phase of a long-term civic initiative. These programs represent areas where research access, community trust, and public collaboration are already active; allowing us to begin documentation, preservation, and public learning immediately.
While several early projects originate within El Paso’s Masonic community; where this work first took root, Builders of the Desert is not exclusive to any single group. Freemasonry represents our initial point of access, not the limit of our mission. Our work is expanding outward to document the full civic, cultural, and social history of El Paso and the Borderlands.
Active Programs & Initiatives
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Walking History Tours
Public, place-based tours connecting El Paso’s architecture, neighborhoods, institutions, and civic history to lived experience. -
Feature Documentary Projects (In Production)
Including:-
Joseph Magoffin: Father of El Paso
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The History of Freemasonry in El Paso
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Builders of the Borderlands (working title)
These projects serve as long-form civic records and educational resources.
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Builders of the Desert Digital History Board
A public-access digital platform featuring historic photographs, documents, architectural drawings, maps, and curated research materials. -
Lodge & Institutional Archive Digitization
The scanning, cataloging, and preservation of historical records from El Paso institutions; beginning with Masonic lodges and expanding to civic organizations, schools, businesses, and community groups. -
Community Artifact Collection
The intake and preservation of photographs, objects, documents, and ephemera that will form the foundation of a future Museum Without Walls; a distributed, publicly accessible civic archive. -
History × Business Poster Series
A visual storytelling initiative highlighting El Paso’s builders, entrepreneurs, and institutions connecting historical legacy to modern civic and economic leadership. -
Builders of the Desert Podcast
A conversational oral-history platform beginning with interviews of longtime El Paso Freemasons, historians, and civic leaders, expanding to include educators, entrepreneurs, artists, families, and community elders across the city.
Why This Focus
These initiatives reflect where meaningful documentation can begin immediately, based on access, trust, and community collaboration. As materials are collected and partnerships expand, this work will grow to represent El Paso’s full and diverse civic story.
Archive Intake
Historical Preservation Program
We scan, catalog, and preserve photographs, documents, yearbooks, architectural drawings, and community records to ensure long-term public access. All materials are added to the Builders of the Desert Digital Archive and made available for education and research.
Story Documentation
Oral-History Collection Program
We record structured interviews with families, community members, historians, and civic leaders. Each interview becomes a permanent public record; preserving local knowledge, memory, and lived experience for future generations.
Educational Resources
Curriculum & Community Learning Program
We translate archival materials and local history into TEKS-aligned lesson plans, classroom modules, field guides, and community learning resources; supporting educators, students, and lifelong learners across the Borderlands.
Field Notes
Research & Site Documentation Program
We conduct research visits, document historic locations, and gather contextual information that deepens public understanding of El Paso’s built environment and civic history. Findings are shared through public summaries and archive entries.
Transcripts & Accessibility
Public Access & Inclusion Program
We produce searchable transcripts, bilingual (EN/ES) captions, descriptive text, and accessibility metadata to ensure all materials are usable by educators, researchers, and individuals with disabilities.
Rights & Clearances
Ethical Stewardship & Compliance Program
We verify permissions, secure usage rights, track public-domain status, and prepare donor documentation—ensuring all materials can be responsibly shared, preserved, and donated to public institutions.
From Research to Public Benefit
Everything we document; stories, photographs, places, and records, feeds into a larger civic ecosystem: archives, classrooms, exhibitions, walking tours, cultural programs, and shared community memory.
Builders of the Desert treats history not as static content, but as a living civic infrastructure.
Be Part of the Record
Builders of the Desert exists to serve El Paso as a whole. Our work grows through shared memory, community trust, and public participation.
If you have a lead, story, photograph, document, or connection that helps tell El Paso’s story, we welcome it. Support; through participation, collaboration, or advocacy, helps ensure this work remains public, accessible, and rooted in place.
Phone
(915) 226-4593
Builders of the Desert
Admin@Builderofthedesert.org