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Centennial Museum and Chihuahuan Desert Gardens, El Paso, TX

Photo: AaronAEP, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped and resized.

Museums

Centennial Museum and Chihuahuan Desert Gardens

A cultural history and natural history museum on the University of Texas at El Paso campus, with desert gardens and a Bhutanese temple building.

610 W. University Ave., El Paso, TX 79968 · El Paso, TX

About Centennial Museum and Chihuahuan Desert Gardens

The Centennial Museum sits on the campus of the University of Texas at El Paso and serves both the university and the binational Chihuahuan Desert region. Its permanent collection holds more than 70,000 objects, ranging from dinosaur fossils to 20th-century luxury goods. Outside, the Chihuahuan Desert Gardens are a botanical garden focused on plants of the desert and nearby areas in the United States and Mexico. The hand-carved, hand-painted Lhakhang, a gift from the people of Bhutan, is also housed on the grounds and opens on set days. The museum is temporarily closed for building maintenance and HVAC work in 2026.

  • #museum
  • #botanical garden
  • #Chihuahuan Desert
  • #natural history
  • #cultural history

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