NUESTRA SEÑORA DE LA LIMPIA CONCEPCIÓN DEL SOCORRO MISSION. (Shown Here During Restoration)
Many of the early explorations and expeditions into New Mexico passed through the site of what is now Socorro, beginning in 1581. They succeeded in putting the area on the Camino Real from Mexico City to Santa Fe. The town, however, owes its establishment to the 1680 Pueblo Revolt in New Mexico. Spanish and Piro refugees from Socorro, New Mexico, gave the mission and town their name. The mission has had several designations: San Pedro de Alcantará, La Limpia Concepción, La Purísima Concepción, San Miguel, and La Purísima. Governor Antonio de Otermín and Father Francisco de Ayeta, superior of the Franciscans in New Mexico, after leaving some of the refugees at El Paso del Norte (present Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua), continued several miles southeastward down the Rio Grande to deposit another contingent at Senecú. Spaniards and Tiguas from Isleta, New Mexico, were also asked to remain at Ysleta del Sur, the third stop. The fourth stop was at the site of Socorro, fifteen miles from El Paso del Norte, probably on October 13, 1680. The Franciscan pastor who accompanied the expedition, Antonio Guerra, marked the founding of the town with a Mass that day.

Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. "NUESTRA SENORA DE LA LIMPIA CONCEPCION DEL SOCORRO MISSION," http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/NN/uqn7.html (accessed July 16, 2005).