 Once known as Peach Orchard Gap in its early settlement, the origin of El Paso's Spanish name is unknown.The historic Southwest Trail, a path used by most travelers entering Arkansas early in the 1800s, entered El Paso on today's Arkansas Highway 5 from Floyd, then headed to Gibson via Arkansas Highway 89, Tate's Mill Road and Batesville Pike Road.By the 1830s more than 80 percent of the Arkansas territory's population had entered through the Southwest Trail.