Museum of the Big Bend – Alpine TX

Description

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed what is now the Museum of the Big Bend in Alpine, Texas in 1937.

sulross.edu: “Originally constructed in the late 1930s, the Big Bend Memorial Museum served first to house and museum and later as the Student Union Building. In 2002, Emmett and Miriam McCoy donated to SRSU its largest private contribution commitment which launched a fund-raising campaign to renovate and restore the
native rock building to once again serve as the home of the Museum of the Big Bend. In honor of these benefactors, the renovated facility is named the Miriam and Emmett McCoy Building.”

“For more than 70 years the Museum of the Big Bend has been collecting and exhibiting artifacts of the vast Big Bend region. … In 1926 the West Texas Historical and Scientific Society was founded for the purpose of creating a museum for the Big Bend region. With funding from the Texas Centennial Commission and the WPA, the Museum was constructed in 1937.” (https://ww2.sulross.edu)

TXArchives.org: “The museum was designed and construction was overseen by Victor J. Smith, a professor of industrial arts at the university.”

The Museum is located on the Sul Ross State University campus and can be reached from Entrance Two on U.S. Highway 90 or Entrance Four from Harrison Street. Once on campus, follow the small, brown signs.