Western Discovery Museum Opens
The Western Discovery Museum opens Monday, September 13, 2010, at 4:30 p.m.
The Western Discovery Museum (WDM) is located in Arizona’s newest incorporated Town of Tusayan located near the south entrance at Grand Canyon National Park. It is managed by the non-profit organization, Scottsdale Museum of the West.
“The founding partners of the museum are proud to bring a fun, inspiring and educational new public attraction to the Colorado Plateau. We are ecstatic to officially cut the ribbon and share our museum’s exhibitions with Grand Canyon visitors from all over the world,” stated Museum Director, John Dillon. “We are appreciative to all those who have contributed to the institution’s development which is a wonderful addition to our fantastic new Town of Tusayan!”
Representatives of the founding partners of the Western Discovery Museum, the Elling Halvorson Family, the Martinson Family Trust, and the Stilo Group, will be participating in the Grand Opening ceremony along with both a representative from the Arizona Office of Tourism, and the Grand Canyon National Park Superintendent, Steve Martin. Western cowboy musicians will also be on hand to entertain the crowd.
The Western Discovery Museum’s inaugural exhibitions invite visitors to explore the twinned threads of observation and imagination, romance and reality that have long been integrated into the fabric of western history and culture. Guests are introduced to some of the fascinating imagery and icons that have given rise to a vision of the west that have captivated the imagination of thousands of people for more than a century.
As guests enter the museum they are introduced to a brilliant presentation that includes renowned photographers’ dramatic modern imagery of the environment, wildlife, and communities of the region. The museum journey continues with an introduction to the 30-year era of the “Wild West” shows, featuring three dimensional displays, historic photographs, and memorabilia from Buffalo Bill, Annie Oakley and other personalities of the era.
Visitors will immerse themselves in the storytelling represented in the exhibit; How the Word of the West was Spread. Oversized graphics depicting dime novels, newspapers such as the National Police Gazette and magazine serials, letters and journals record the real and romanticized west. The Bison Museum’s Karl May scrapbook in its original German and other precious examples of published works are highlighted. Visual artists who helped to shape the western images are introduced through their creative works, including George Catlin’s suite of lithographs, Frederic Remington’s sculptures that portray the romance of cowboy life, Dee Flagg’s life-size carvings of “Wild Bill” Hickok and Wyatt Earp, and an alabaster sculpture, “Like the Eagle,” by Allan Houser, the master Native American artist of the 20th Century.
The Western Discovery Museum’s “historic” saloon is named for the Tusayan Bar, in tribute to one of the area’s earliest businesses, and a popular “watering hole” for Santa Fe Railroad employees and local ranch hands. Guests can belly up to the bar or pull up a chair at a table and view some of the great movie westerns of the past and present.
On exhibit through October 2010 is a world-class show entitled “Grand Canyon Grandeur: Early Paintings and Prints of the Colorado Plateau and the Grand Canyon from the A.P. Hays Collection.” It offers today’s Grand Canyon visitors the unique opportunity to view the canyon and region through the eyes of many respected artists who visited in the 19th and 20th centuries, including Moran, Widforss, Akin, Borg, and more.
The Summer (March 1 – October 31) hours of the Western Discovery Museum are 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., daily, and its Winter (November 1 – February 28) hours are 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., daily. Admission fees are: Adults $8; Youth $5; and children 5 and under are FREE. Special group rates are available.
westerndiscoverymuseum.org
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