Blood & Biohazard Cleanup Near Downtown Anthony Anthony, TX

Anthony sits right on the Texas-New Mexico state line in El Paso County and is the first town travelers encounter when driving south into Texas from New Mexico on Interstate 10.

Anthony reportedly takes its name from a chapel a Mexican-American woman built to honor St. Anthony of Padua sometime before 1884.

The townsite was laid out around 1881, when the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway was extended through the area.

For decades the community was known as La Tuna, after the Federal Correctional Institution La Tuna located there, where a post office operated from 1932 to 1965.

Anthony incorporated on July 5, 1952, at a time when its population was only around 1,200 people.

In 1988 the Anthony Chamber of Commerce proclaimed the town the Leap Year Capital of the World, and Anthony hosts the Worldwide Leap Year Birthday Club for people born on February 29.

Anthony is a twin city with Anthony, New Mexico, which borders it directly to the north across the state line.

The 2020 census counted 3,671 residents in Anthony, and recent Census survey estimates put the town at roughly 1,500 households averaging about three people each.

Anthony is home to Wet 'N' Wild Waterworld, a family-owned 60-acre water park with more than 25 rides that has operated since 1979 and is billed as the third-oldest waterpark in the United States.

Anthony lies about sixteen miles northwest of downtown El Paso in a Rio Grande valley farming area of pecan orchards, farmland, and dairies between El Paso and Las Cruces.