Socorro

City and administrative headquarters of Socorro County, west-central New Mexico, on the Rio Grande, 120 km/75 mi southwest of Albuquerque; population (1990) 8,200. Its economy is based on the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (1889) and related businesses.

Built on the ruins of Piro Pueblo, around the 1628 San Miguel Mission (successor to a 1598 attempt), it was an important post on the Spanish route between Mexico and Santa Fe. A railway and mining town before 1900, it was for many years a shipping centre for silver, cattle, and flour producers.

Socorro

Town in western Texas, on the Rio Grande, 21 km/13 mi southeast of central El Paso; population (1990) 23,000. Its economy has been based on irrigated farming, but it has experienced rapid suburban growth since the 1970s.

One of the oldest communities in the state, it developed in the early 1680s as Concepción del Socorro, a Spanish mission.