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West Texas town declares itself
"Leap Year Capital of the World"
On this day in 1988, the chamber
of commerce of Anthony, on the
Texas-New Mexico border in El Paso
County, declared the town the Leap
Year Capital of the World. Anthony
was reportedly named by a
Mexican-American woman who built a
chapel to St. Anthony of Padua
sometime before 1884. The Texas
community later became known as La
Tuna, after the Federal Correctional
Institution located there. In the
early 1940s the population was
estimated at only twenty, but ten
years later, after the community
incorporated as Anthony, the
population estimate had grown to
1,200. By the second quadrennial
celebration, held in 1992, the
Worldwide Leap Year Birthday Club,
headquartered in Anthony and open to
anyone born on February 29, had more
than 100 members.
- Links to Related
Handbook of Texas Online
Articles
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ANTHONY, TX
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FEDERAL CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION
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EL PASO COUNTY
- Other Texas Day by Day
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