Museum opens at new home

PORTALES — After more than half a year, the light illuminating eastern New Mexico's rich historical roots has been restored.

The Blackwater Draw Museum opened Saturday in its new location in Lea Hall on the campus of Eastern New Mexico University after moving from its previous site on the U.S. 70 highway, which closed in early September.

The museum opened in 1969 to highlight the scientific importance of the Blackwater Draw archeology site about 10 miles north of Portales where traces of ancient man were found, according to site Director George Crawford.

In its time in Portales, the museum has been a staple for people across the region to draw knowledge from, Crawford said.

"Virtually everyone who grows up here or within a 120-mile radius, it seems, comes for field trips, or their family will stop by when they're coming through. Even elderly people who grew up out here remember going to that museum — one guy was telling us he toured it when it first opened as a little kid, and he remembered how neat it was," he said.

The former museum building suffered from an inconvenient location and was in dire need of repair, according to Crawford, making the transition to Lea Hall a necessary one.

Though the new location is a quarter of the square footage of the original space, he said, the room for displays isn't much less.

Crawford said displays will be updated and rotated as needed, a feature Crawford believed was lacking in the old museum.

"We have people who watch a Discovery Channel or a PBS documentary, and they would go up to the museum and want to see and talk to somebody who could discuss that. The displays (in the previous location), they were kind of frozen in time, so we've set it up so that hopefully, if the university keeps funding it and the state keeps funding it, it will be constantly updated every year," he said.

While the museum is meant to promote the archaeological importance of eastern New Mexico, Crawford said, it has itself become a part of the region's history.

"It ties people to where they come from in a lot of ways and lets them know that other people were here before them, lets them know that places change over time," he said.

The museum is open from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and noon-5 p.m. Sundays in room 163 of Lea Hall. Admission is $3.

An opening reception will be held 1 p.m. Friday with free admission to the museum all day.