Socorro Mission grew out of the same 1680-1681 Pueblo Revolt exodus that produced Ysleta, founded for a mixed community of Spanish colonists, Piro, Tano, and Jemez Indians who settled along the Rio Grande near a Piro pueblo. A temporary church stood by 1684, replaced by a permanent adobe structure completed around 1691 and dedicated to Nuestra Senora de la Limpia Concepcion. For roughly six decades the mission functioned as the everyday religious and administrative hub for its Piro and Spanish residents, organizing worship, sacraments, and community affairs along the river valley. Repeated Rio Grande flooding disrupted this routine: the 1740s floods destroyed the church, and a major 1829 flood shifted the river's course southward, ultimately pushing the community to rebuild a new mission about half a mile northwest around the 1840s, on or near the site of today's church. The earlier mission site is now recognized as the oldest documented mission location in Texas and is protected as a State Antiquities Landmark, reflecting its archaeological rather than continuing devotional use. The successor church carries the Socorro Mission name forward into the present as part of the historic "Mission Trail" corridor of the lower El Paso Valley, alongside Ysleta and San Elizario, and continues to serve as a place of Catholic worship and community gathering for the modern Socorro community, as well as a stop for heritage tourism and pilgrimage tied to the valley's Spanish colonial and Piro Indian history.