BIG BEND, BIGGER BIRD

Housed in the remaining native rock structure on the Sul Ross State University Campus, the Museum of the Big Bend provides visitors with an overview of the region’s human occupation that spans the last eleven thousand years. Four distinct cultures emerged across the Big Bend over the course of this period, shaping a rich cultural diversity. The Museum’s mission – to collect, preserve, exhibit, and interpret the cultural artifacts of the region – began in earnest with the Museum’s construction in 1937, a project funded by the Texas Centennial Commission and assisted by the Works Progress Administration. Since then, the Museum’s unique native stone building has undergone renovations and restoration both inside and out.

Today, the Museum’s holdings include artifacts and exhibits exploring the Big Bend Legacy, an extensive archive of early Texas maps called the Yana & Marty Davis Map Collection, late 19th and early 20th century retablos (small, personal devotional paintings on tin), and the intriguing Livermore Cache, a collection of unique arrowheads discovered on top of Mount Livermore, the Davis Mountains’ highest peak. The Museum also hosts the “Trappings of Texas”, a nationally acclaimed tradition, this annual exhibition of cowboy gear and western art attracts visitors from all over the world. Perhaps the Museum’s most popular exhibit with the smallest visitors, however, is its life-size replica of Quetzalcoatulus Northropi. This Pterosaur, with its thirty-six foot wingspan, was a very early inhabitant of the region that, fortunately, went extinct