Arizona Museum of Natural History

The Arizona Museum of Natural History (originally the Mesa Southwest Museum) is located in Mesa, Arizona, and is the only natural history museum in the greater Phoenix area. It displays the natural and cultural history of the American Southwest.

History

The Mesa Southwest Museum began in 1977 as a small museum in Mesa City Hall, with a small collection of Arizona artefacts, in a building designed by Lescher & Mahoney and built with WPA funds in 1937, that originally housed Mesa City Hall, municipal courts, city library, police and fire departments. The building was expanded in 1983 and 1987, and a new wing was added in 2000. The main museum complex is currently approximately 74,000 square feet (6,900 m2), of which approximately 46,000 square feet (4,300 m2) are dedicated to exhibitions containing approximately 60,000 objects of natural history, anthropology, history, and art, as well as approximately 10,000 historic photographs. In 1995, a research facility was also added. Furthermore,The museum has well-known research curators in paleontology and archaeology/anthropology.

Exhibitions

On Dinosaur Mountain, the Museum has a three-story indoor waterfall with animatronic dinosaurs and a flash flood display that runs every 30 minutes.

 Other exhibits include Dinosaur Hall, a functioning territorial jail, and a recreation of the Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine. The Southwest Gallery includes a native peoples gallery with exhibits about Paleoindian big game hunters and gatherers, the first inhabitants of North America, and later Desert Cultures. It also houses a recreation of a Hohokam village, complete with pit houses and above-ground structures furnished with authentic artifacts from around A.D. 600-1450. The Ancient Cultures of Mexico is another exhibit. The Origins gallery  is intended to be a journey through the cosmos' timeline and discusses major events in Earth's history. A hands-on Exploration Station and the Paleo Dig Pit are among the exhibitions . Three changing exhibition galleries cover a wide range of topics. Was flight developed from the ground up or from the tree down? The exhibition "Rulers of the Prehistoric Skies" at the AzMNH helped to answer that question. Although the exhibit has since been removed, the pterosaurs can still be seen throughout the museum.

Hours of Operation

All federal and municipal holidays have been observed.

Monday \s Closed

Tuesday through Saturday

10 am - 5 pm

Noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday

Adult admission is $13.

Child (3-12 years old): $7

Child 0-2 years old: free

Senior citizen: $10

$8 for students with ID

EBT cardholders - $2

Children under the age of two are admitted free, as are Museum members.