West of the Pecos Museum — Attraction in Pecos

Between El Paso and Dallas in the middle of west Texas spaciousness or emptiness, depending on how you see it, is the little Town of Pecos. Pecos is filled with history and lore of the old west and a huge chunk of that history is captured in the West of the Pecos Museum. The dirt parking lot adds to the dusty old west feeling. the museum from outside looks pretty plain. I guess that is authentic, and is most likely how it would have looked over a hundred years ago. The museum is many faceted so I will highlight a few things and ramble a bit, as this museum rambles, up stairs, down stairs, along halls and around corners to reveal history of Pecos and the wild west. The museum starts its tour in a bar with an animated bartender telling stories. I suspect that might have been a starting point for visitors as they got the local news. The bar is simple and a nice recreation of history. As you waltz through the facility on finds recreations of history of Pecos including the doctors office, the western union office, the hair dressers salon (and what a contraption you will see there!), an old home layout - room by room - and lots of local pecos not to far past history. The barbwire collections is big. The arrowhead collection is huge and well displayed. The brands are in so many shapes. The tack collection is minor. The local history from the 20th century, starts to lose appeal for me, as we get to the Belles of Pecos and local trivia. The poster from the banks revealing that they only wanted and would only pay for dead bank robbers caught in the act, with firearms, during the the day, within an hour of the robbery shows an era (1933) where shoot first and ask questions later was a quite different type of justice. All in all it is lot of stuff to see, and some is worth examining in detail and some is good for a glance. Your call! The gift and book store has a very interesting selection of items for unique gifts and reading material. Worth a stop to break the drive from El...

A large museum with extensive exhibits detailing everything about the West, but particularly focusing on Pecos history (e.g. Pecos fire fighters, cowboys, teachers, statesmen, etc.) The setting - a three-story historic hotel - is as interesting as the artifacts inside. The exhibits are dated and showing their age (literally, with peeling paper and dust). However, if you can look aside from that there is enough here to spend 4-5 hours reading everything. Instead, skip the exhibits that don't interest you so there is more time for the stuff that does. $5/adult...

I attended a family reunion here in 1997. Our surname was honored as a pioneer family the same year. I have vague memories, but do remember my, now deceased grandfather, Thomas Alvarez being honored as well. I know I met so many people that day as a kid, but no one ever kept in touch. I have many pictures from disposable cameras of people whom I don’t remember, other than the fact that we are related in some manner through the generations. If anyone recalls this day, or has more information, I’d love to speak with you. Who knows, we might just be...