Museum of the Big Bend
On the campus of Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas, a museum chronicles 130 million years of history in one of America's most dramatic landscapes. The Museum of the Big Bend was built by the Works Progress Administration in 1937, part of Texas's centennial celebration marking 100 years of independence from Mexico. Today, the museum houses fossils from the age of dinosaurs to the age of mammals, one of the largest collections of Texas maps in the state, and devotional paintings on tin that speak to the region's deep cultural ties to Mexico. In 2023, an $11 million expansion doubled the museum's size, bringing new attention to this remarkable repository of Big Bend history.
A Centennial Gift
In 1935, the Texas Legislature created the Texas Centennial Commission to organize celebrations marking the 100th anniversary of Texas independence. The commission allocated funds for a museum on the Sul Ross State University campus in Alpine, and the Works Progress Administration provided additional funding to cover the $75,000 construction cost. Sul Ross industrial arts professor Victor J. Smith, a self-trained architect, designed the building and supervised its construction using WPA labor. Former Texas Governor Pat Morris Neff dedicated the museum on May 1, 1937. For nearly three decades, the West Texas Historical and Scientific Society served as the museum's steward, building collections that documented the natural and cultural history of the Big Bend region.
Wandering Collections
By 1966, the West Texas Historical and Scientific Society had become inactive, and the museum closed. The collections passed to Sul Ross State University, and the original museum building was converted into a student center. The artifacts that had told the story of the Big Bend were stored first in a former bowling alley, then in Lawrence Hall, an academic building on campus. For decades, the museum existed only in boxes and storage rooms. Then, in 2000, a new student center opened, and the original 1937 building sat abandoned. A successful $3.3 million capital campaign funded the renovation, and Sul Ross dedicated the reborn Museum of the Big Bend on August 15, 2007. The collections finally had a permanent home.
Maps, Art, and Fossils
The museum houses diverse collections reflecting the Big Bend's layered history. The Yana and Marty Davis Map Collection contains over 2,000 maps focusing on the Texas-Mexico borderlands, one of the largest and most diversified collections of Texas maps in the state, housed in a dedicated map room. The Betty Byerley Collection includes more than 25 retablos, small devotional paintings on tin that reflect the region's Mexican Catholic heritage. The Fred Darge Collection features paintings by Friedrich Ernst Darge chronicling everyday life in the Big Bend during the early to mid-twentieth century. Most dramatically, the paleontological collections span 130 million years, from the Cretaceous through the Cenozoic, featuring fossils including Bravoceratops and a replica of the giant pterosaur Quetzalcoatlus, which once soared over the Chihuahuan Desert.
The McCoy Expansion
In June 2023, an $11 million expansion doubled the museum's footprint, adding 10,000 square feet of new exhibition and event space. Miriam McCoy, whose family owns McCoy's Building Supply, donated $5 million for the project. University of Texas architecture professor Larry Speck, also a principal at Page Southerland Page, designed the new building in weathering steel, its rusty exterior echoing the desert landscape. The new structure, named the Emmett and Miriam McCoy Building, connects to the original 1937 building by an enclosed walkway. An event center can accommodate 300 people standing or 80 seated, transforming the museum into a cultural gathering place for the Big Bend region. The expansion brought new life to a New Deal landmark, ensuring that the story of this remote and remarkable corner of Texas will continue to be told.
From the Air
The Museum of the Big Bend is located on the Sul Ross State University campus in Alpine, Texas, at approximately 30.36°N, 103.65°W, at an elevation of about 4,475 feet MSL. Alpine sits in a high desert valley between the Davis Mountains to the north and Big Bend National Park to the south. Nearest airport: Alpine-Casparis Municipal Airport (E38), approximately 3 nm north. The university campus is visible as a cluster of buildings on the south side of town. The 2023 expansion building is distinguished by its modern weathering steel exterior adjacent to the 1937 WPA structure. Big Bend National Park lies approximately 80 nm to the south.