Atlas Obscura - Curious and Wondrous Travel Destinations

Dave's Pawn Shop

A decades-old pawn shop featuring an extensive collection of oddities and bizarre trinkets.  

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Dave’s Pawn Shop is a treasure trove of oddities and bizarre artifacts. The shop has been a staple of South El Paso Street for several decades, yet many locals have never visited the shop.

Inside, is a vast collection including thousands of wristwatches, skulls, World War II paraphernalia, mummies, and the rumored trigger finger of revolutionary Pancho Villa. A life-size Elvis figure greets you at the door, and his music is usually playing outside the shop. Dave’s Pawn Shop is also one of the few remaining businesses on South El Paso Street that features a turn-of-the-19th-century façade. It harkens back to the days when gunfighter John Wesley Hardin roamed the streets of downtown El Paso.

Know Before You Go

Metered parking is available.


Throughout the store, there is Nazi memorabilia for sale. There is a Nazi swastika medallion among other metal signs and decorations on the front door, and inside the store a framed picture of Adolf Hitler, Nazi medals, Nazi helmets, and other Nazi junk for sale. Even among "shrunken heads," a fiji mermaid, full suits of armor, and other oddities, the Nazi junk is noticeable and jarring.

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