Tularosa Museum of History offers a trip into Otero's past

The Tularosa Basin Historical Society (TBHS), in an effort to call attention to the fascinating history of this area of New Mexico and in cooperation with the Alamogordo Daily News, is initiating a series of articles concerning our local history and the housing of artifacts from it in our new museum. The first of the TBHS articles appears today and will become a periodic feature in the newspaper. Today’s article is authored by Jeffrey A. Weiler as will be most of the others. Mr. Weiler is a volunteer docent at the TBHS Museum of History who has a very strong background in history. It is the hope of the TBHS that the articles will prove interesting to the people of our area and becomes a strong invitation for them to visit our museum.

–Dr. David Townsend

The Tularosa Basin Museum of History stands sentry to the passage of time. Located at the corner of White Sands Boulevard and 10th Street, the museum’s mission is to preserve and present memories of the local area. The museum building itself is quite special because of its construction and because of its location.

The building, with its walls of thick adobe and its roof of timbers felled from the Sacramento Mountains, dates from the period of 1937-38. It served first as the home of the Plaza Café and a bar located in the north wing of the building. Once the café closed, a myriad of small businesses occupied the east wing through the years.

TBHS acquired the building in 2007 and after years of tough effort, both political and physical, was able to refurbish the building into a proper local history museum, which opened its doors in January 2016. In its aged walls, the museum presents numerous exhibits ranging from the La Luz Pottery Factory, the local lumber industry, Native American artifacts, the El Paso & Northeastern Railway, early ranching in the area including a fully preserved and appointed chuck wagon, and a very rare authentic 47 star United States flag.

The museum also houses a research library with local records, computerized oral histories, and archives that cover nearly every aspect of local history, ranging from folk tales to archeological finds in the Basin.

Be it local, tourist, academic or wide-eyed school children, the TBHS Museum of History stand ready to captivate any visitor with the humble trappings and remnants of the last few centuries.

For more information about the Museum call 575-434-4438 or go online to their website at alamogordohistory.com