Tucumcari Visitors Guide

Activities and Attractions IN Tucumcari

Mesalands Community College's Dinosaur Museum
222 East Laughlin Street
Tucumcari, New Mexico 88401
(575) 461-3466

Mesalands Community College's Dinosaur Museum has been open to the public since May 2000. The facility houses approximately 10,000 square feet of exhibit space, a spacious, well-equipped paleontology/geology laboratory (with a large area devoted to storage of the Museum collections not on exhibit but available for study), a classroom, offices, and a retail store. Classes for natural science degree programs, with an emphasis in paleontology and geology, are held here and all fossils found on course field trips are sorted and prepped in the lab.

The Museum Shop offers 1,300 square feet of retail space. Among the items for sale are scientific and educational books, rocks and minerals, fossils, clothing, games, teaching aids, gift items and souvenirs, and much more.

The Museum facilities are available for group tours and for hosting special events. Organizations and businesses are invited to discuss their needs with Museum staff.

The 11,000 square-foot Exhibit Hall houses replicated and original fossils, from tiny footprint casts to the 40' long skeleton of a Torvosaurus . Although not limited to this time span, the Museum's focus is on the Mesozoic, the "Age of Dinosaurs," which is comprised of the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous. The newest major exhibit to open is a "mini-museum" that explains and exhibits items from the earliest known fossils to modern man.

The museum is home to the world's largest collection of bronze skeletons, fossils, and replicas of prehistoric creatures. The bronzes,created in the College's foundry, were poured by members of Mesalands staff, assisted by a number of community volunteers. The Museum was the first in the world to display a Torvosaurus skeleton, a rare carnivore from the Jurassic that is related to Tyrannosaurus rex .

Within the Exhibit Hall is a children's activity area with seating for parents and grandparents, and most of the exhibits are child-friendly and touchable.

Hours of operation
Summer Hours: March 1 - Labor Day
Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 am - 6:00 pm (Closed Sunday and Monday)

Winter Hours: Labor Day - February 28/29
Tuesday through Saturday, 12:00 pm - 5:00 pm (Closed Sunday and Monday)

Closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Day.

Admission prices
Adult (12-64) $6.00
Children (5-11) $3.50
Children (under 5) Free
Senior (65 and over) $5.00
Groups of 10 or more $4.00 Adult/$2.50 child
School/kids groups (7 days notice/1 chaperon per 6 kids)$4.00 Adult/$2.50 child
Educators/College Students (ID required) $4.00
Active Military (ID Required) 10% off regular pricing

Tucumcari Historical Museum
416 South Adams Street
Tucumcari, NM 88401
575-461-4201
museum@cityoftucumcari.com

This historical museum, housed in the original 1903 schoolhouse, showcases items ranging from 12,000 B.C. Indian artifacts to a 1926 Chevrolet fire truck.

The Tucumcari Museum is a museum for regular folks. This museum is different. It is like one giant attic of old stuff. There is stuff piled on top of stuff - under stuff - between stuff - stuffed inside of stuff - and overstuffed stuff. There are two stories of stuff, a basement with stuff, and outbuildings overflowing with stuff. And what constitutes a museum exhibit? Here at the Tucumcari Museum, about anything goes. Prized bowling balls, a collection of used cowboy boots, a bucket of particularly colorful cow-patties, piles of family scrapbooks, bootleg liquor stills, a roulette wheel from one of the old gambling halls, you name it. The collection is like buried treasure. There is an excellent chance you can dig through stuff and find something that the rest of the world didn't even know existed.

Hours of operation
Summer hours (Memorial Day to Labor Day): Monday through Saturday, 8:00 am to 6:00 pm; Sunday is closed
Fall and Winter hours (Labor Day to Memorial Day): Monday through Friday, 8:00 am to 5:00 pm
Contact Museum for Special Events Schedule

Admission Fees
Adult $2.00 + tax; Youth $ .50 + tax

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Fine Arts Bronze
911 South Tenth Street
Tucumcari, NM 88401
575-461-4413

Mesalands Community College's Dinosaur Museum and the College's Fine Arts/Bronze staff and students work together to cast replicas of fossils that students and the visiting public can handle. This state-of-the-art facility on the College's main campus also houses the Farrier Science program. The Fine Arts/Bronze department offers traditional fine arts classes in addition to sculpture in various media, mold making, and casting metals, and allows participation in the complete foundry process. Specialty classes are offered throughout the year, including their popular Iron Pours.

Call or write Mesalands Community College to schedule a tour of this facility or find out more about their artful offerings and pouring schedules at the address above.

They look forward to welcoming tourists as well as prospective students.

Tucumcari Municipal Golf Course
4465 Rt 66
Tucumcari, NM 88401
575-461-1849.

Five miles west of Tucumcari on Route 66 is the Tucumcari Municipal Golf Course. This charming up-and-down, tree-lined 9-hole golf course features excellent greens situated among the mesas. Complete with driving range and golf cart rentals, the Tucumcari Municipal Golf Course is one of Eastern New Mexico's golfing secrets. You'll find a fun and challenging round that is truly one of the best golf values anywhere.

Hours of operation
Tuesday-Sunday, 8 a.m. to dark

Route 66 Road Side Attraction

The Cultural Corridors Public Act on Scenic Highways Project commissioned Tom Coffin in 1997 to design and sculpt the Route 66 Roadside Attraction, a chrome tail lights-and-fins homage to Route 66. The sculpture sits three stories tall alongside Route 66 in front of the Tucumcari Convention Center on the West end of town and offers an unusual photographic opportunity.

Route 66 Neon
A drive down Tucumcari's Route 66 at night reveals a wonderland of dazzling neon lights. In the hey-day of Route 66 these colorful flashing signs were meant to entice the weary traveler into stopping at that particular motel rather than another down the street. Colorful designs with a decidedly western motif enticed the tourist to stop using an age-old marketing ploy ~ the kids. "Wow dad! Look at that! Can we stop there for the night?"

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Route 66 Murals
Tucumcari might just have become the unofficial "Mural City" of Route 66 because of the work of local artists Doug and Sharon Quarles. They have created over 23 life-size and bigger than life-size murals throughout the city of Tucumcari and Quay County.

Click here to view a map of where the murals are located.

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