El Paso Has the World’s Largest Illuminated Star on a Mountain

If you grew up in El Paso, you know the feeling. You're coming back into town after a long trip, the city starts to spread out in front of you, and there it is on the Franklin Mountains. The Star. It means you're home.

How Rare Is El Paso's Star On The Mountain?

El Paso's Star Is the Biggest of Its Kind on Earth

The Star on the Mountain has stood on the south face of the Franklin Mountains since 1940, when El Paso Electric Company first lit it as a holiday decoration. After a storm blew out the original structure almost immediately, it was rebuilt bigger and better. By 1946, it reached its current dimensions: 459 feet tall and 278 feet wide, with 459 bulbs arranged at a 30-degree angle on the mountainside. It can be seen from the ground up to 35 miles away and from the air up to 100 miles out.

That makes it the world's largest man-made illuminated star. Period.

There Is One Rival City and El Paso Still Wins

The closest comparison is Roanoke, Virginia, which built its own illuminated star on Mill Mountain in 1949. The Roanoke Star holds its own title: the world's largest freestanding illuminated star. Standing 88.5 feet tall and built from 2,000 feet of neon tubing, it even earned Roanoke the nickname "Star City of the South." The two cities actually share more than a rivalry in titles. Both stars began as Christmas decorations. Both became so beloved that residents refused to let them come down. And both cities ended up with "Star City" in their identity.

But El Paso's star is nearly five times taller, sits on an actual mountain, and has been shining since nine years before Roanoke's even existed.

Other Cities Have Letters, El Paso Has Both

Across the American West, hundreds of cities have hillside letters or symbols on mountains, mostly school initials carved or painted into rock. Montana alone has over 100. These are community traditions, but they are generally daytime landmarks with no illumination and limited visibility.

El Paso's Star is in a different category entirely. It is not a letter representing a school. It is not a neon sign bolted to a building. It is a massive illuminated symbol of an entire city, lit every night, visible from two countries, and recognized by the Library of Congress as an informal community landmark. Plus, the Franklin Mountain is also covered in painted letters representing schools, so really El Paso has everything.

More Than a Landmark, a Community Voice

What truly separates El Paso's Star from anything else in the world is what it has meant over the decades. It burned for 444 nights during the Iran Hostage Crisis in solidarity with American prisoners. It stayed lit through the Gulf War until the last Fort Bliss soldier came home. In the days after the 2019 Walmart shooting, it flashed 23 times, once for each victim.

Today, the Star changes colors for Pride Month, Veterans Day, cancer awareness months, and individual tributes requested by El Pasoans through the Chamber of Commerce's Starlighter program. A recent $300,000 renovation upgraded it to individually controlled LED bulbs capable of displaying a full spectrum of color.

No other city on earth has anything quite like it. El Paso has had it since 1940.