Museums in Utah

In this section you will find information on selected museums focusing on Utah's history and arts venues. These, and many, many more, are waiting to catch your eye and spark your interest in Utah's heritage and culture. In addition to the heritage museums featured here, many cities have Daughters of the Utah Pioneers Museums. These eclectic collections include wonderful treasures. Inquire locally for details. Read more...

MUSEUM RESOURCES

FEATURED MUSEUMS

• Natural History Museum of Utah
• Museum of Ancient Life

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Northern Utah

Alpine

Alpine Art Center, (801) 763-7173. Master-minded by two Utah sculptors, Dennis Smith and Steve Streadbeck, this facility is not just a museum, but also a state-of-the-art foundry offering the unique opportunity to see metal-cast art works in process. An outdoor sculpture park surrounds the art center. Interior galleries display sculpture, paintings and watercolor works. Classes in a variety of art techniques are being developed for adults and children.

Bountiful

Bountiful-Davis Art Center, 2175 S. Main, (801) 292-0367. Exhibitions; gift gallery; art classes.

Brigham City

Brigham City Museum-Gallery, 24 N. 300 West, (435) 723-6769. Permanent history displays, including historic preservation and downtown revitalization. Historic research and publications. Children's hands-on exhibits. Quilt exhibits. Rotating art exhibits with all media, including electronic art.

Kaysville

The Kaysville LeConte Stewart Gallery of Art, 44 N. Main,(801) 544-2826. Gallery collection represents the various styles of this popular Utah artist.

Lehi

John Hutchings Museum of Natural History, 55 North Center Street, (801) 768-7180. Pioneer exhibits, undersea life from Puerto Rico and Pacific; Indian artifacts; minerals; birds and eggs; fossils; Viet Nam and South Sea Islands memorabilia.

Logan

The AVA Art Center, 43 South Main Street, (435) 753-2970, and the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Utah State University,(435) 797-0163 have permanent and traveling art exhibits year-round.

American West Heritage Center, 4025 S. Highway 89-91 in Wellsville, 435-245-4064. Living history special events throughout the year. Regular summer activities take place May 15 - Oct 17. Open daily 10-4 and closed Sun & Mon. $15 family, $5 adults, $4 senior citizens/students, $3 children (under 12).

Ogden

Eccles Community Art Center, 2580 Jefferson Ave, (801) 392-6935, features monthly exhibitions guided by well-trained docents.Fort Buenaventura State Park, 2450 A Ave, (801) 621-4808. Fort Buenaventura brings back one of the most fascinating periods in Western American folk-lore, the Mountain Man era. The Fort has been recreated on the original site, and guides in period dress interpret the fort as well as the historical lifestyle of the Mountain Men and the Indians who inhabited the area. Authentic artifacts are also displayed.

Hill Aerospace Museum, 7961 Wardleigh Rd., Roy, off I-15 just south of Ogden on Hill Air Force Base, (801) 777-6868. It has one of the largest collections of vintage aircraft assembled anywhere in the United States. Guided tours combine facts with engaging stories of planes and the pilots who flew them.

Historic Union Station, 2501 Wall Ave, Ogden. No longer in operation as a train depot, the station is home today to four museums, an art gallery, library, and model railroad display. Highlights include the Browning Firearms Museum, Browning-Kimball Car Museum, Utah State Railroad Museum and Eccles Rail Center. Hours: Mon-Sat, 10 am to 5 pm. 801-393-9886.

Treehouse Museum, 347 22nd St, Ogden, is a nonprofit educational organization whose mission is to be the magical place where children and families "Step Into a Story." 801-394-9663

Park City

Kimball Art Center, 638 Park Ave, (435) 649-8882, provides a complete center for the visual arts with gallery and studio space. Traveling exhibits are a regular feature, as are art and craft workshops. Park City has many other art galleries for browsing.Among other reminders of the town's rowdy silver mining past,The Park City Museum, 528 Main, (435) 645-5135 has a re-created Territorial Jail, yearly exchanging exhibits, and summer walking tours led by costumed guides.

Payson

Historic Peteetneet Museum and Cultural Arts Center, 10 South 600 East, (801) 465-5264. This museum is housed in a restored 1901 three story Victorian school building. Free exhibits are open from 10 am until 4 pm, Monday through Friday. Exhibits include pioneer exhibits and artifacts, a DUP Museum, the Payson Historical Society exhibits, a Freedom Room exhibit, History of Writing Exhibit, a Western Room, an early pioneer blacksmith shop, a 150 year exhibit of historical clothing, as well as an art gallery with rotating exhibits. We also have a permanent art collection of paintings and sculptures. We serve as an Information Center for the local area as well as the Nebo Loop Scenic Byway.

Provo/Orem

Woodbury Art Museum, at Utah Valley University, University Mall - Orem, (801) 863-4200. The Woodbury Art Museum seeks to provide cultural and educational opportunities to Utah Valley University students and area residents. It is located in a new facility of the second floor of University Mall and is accessible through an external entrance between Nordstrom and The Gap. Rotating exhibitions include work by local and national artists, group and one-person shows, traveling exhibitions and juried shows. Educational programs are under development. Free Admission. For information on exhibits, hours, and directions, please access our web site at www.uvu.edu/museum. Closed holidays.

Brigham Young University / Provo

Museum of Art, North Campus Dr, (801) 378-8256. Family interactive center, print study room, theater, art study center; 75-seat restaurant, bookstore and permanent and temporary exhibits of paintings and sculpture.

Earth Science Museum, EARTH Building, (801)-422-3680. Guided tours. Exhibits of fossils from most geologic periods and research collections of dinosaurs and other vertebrates, especially from the Jurassic period.

Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum, 290 MLBM, (801) 378-5051. Preserved and mounted examples of animals, insects, plants, and fish. Exhibits based on the life cycles of all species,education programs and children's hands-on Discovery Area.

Museum of Peoples and Cultures, 700 North 100 East, (801) 378-6112. Guided tours. Permanent and temporary exhibits tracking the anthropology of world cultures.

Salt Lake City

Utah Museum of Fine Arts, 410 Campus Center Drive, Salt Lake City, (801) 581-7332. Permanent collection of approximately 15,000 art objects representing world cultures for the past 5,000 years. Musical concerts, lectures, films, gallery talks. Hours: Tuesday-Friday: 10-5; Wednesday: 10-8; Saturday, Sunday: 11-5. Admission: Adults: $5; Seniors: $3; Youth (6-18): $3.

Chase Home Museum of Utah Folk Arts, Liberty Park, (801) 533-5760. Our free exhibits provide a unique view of contemporary Utah through the traditional arts of our state's Indian tribes, occupational and ethnic groups, and Utahns of rural heritage. On summer evenings during July and August we present Mondays in the Park, a free concert series featuring everything from ethnic dance and music to pow-wow demonstrations and cowboy poetry by Utah performers.

This is The Place Heritage Park, 2601 Sunnyside Ave., Salt Lake City, 801-582-1847. Living History events and activities daily 9 am - 5 pm from May 15 - Sept. 30 (limited programming on Sundays). $8/adults, $6, children (3-11) & seniors (55+)

Discovery Gateway, 444 West 100 South, 801-456-KIDS. Discovery Gateway is Utah's premier children's museum, inviting families in to create, learn, and play together. Formerly called the Childrens' Museum of Utah, the museum provides a hands-on learning center with engaging interactive activities that inspire learning in children and fun for the whole family.

Classic Cars International Auto Museum, 355 W. 700 South,(801) 322-5186, (801) 582-6883. A collection of a hundred antique, classic, and special interest autos are on display, including Pierce-Arrows, a Stutz Bearcat, and a 1906 Cadillac "Tulip" roadster. Vehicles from 1903 to 1970 are represented.

Finch Lane Gallery / Art Barn, Salt Lake City Arts Council, 54 Finch Ln., (801) 596-5000. Visual, performing and literary programs, generally free to the public.

Fort Douglas Military Museum, 32 Potter St., (801) 588-5188.The museum is housed in the 1875 Quartermaster Victorian Infantry Barracks Building located at Fort Douglas which was founded in 1862 by California Volunteers to protect the Overland Mail & Telegraph lines; 1,500-volume library of military history of Utah and Fort Douglas, reading room, two cemeteries, guided tours, permanent and temporary exhibitions.

Hellenic Cultural Museum, 279 S 300 West, (801) 328-9681,(801) 484-9708, (801) 277-9237. The museum reflects the life of the early Greek immigrants, their struggles, achievements, social life, and tragedies. Displays include a mining exhibit, photographs, costumes, dolls, old letters, manuscripts, early mining tools, as well as artifacts from Greece.

Museum of Utah Art & History, 125 South Main Street Salt Lake City, Utah 84111 (801)355-5554. Museum Hours: Tuesday through Saturday 11am - 3pm; 6-9 pm on the third Friday of every month for the gallery stroll. The mission of the Museum of Utah Art & History (MUAH) is to foster among people an awareness of, and excitement about, Utah art and its history so that they may draw significance and perspective from the past and find purpose for the future. MUAH is located inside a beautiful Beaux-Arts style building constructed in 1913. MUAH showcases only Utah related art and history from various state and private collections, as well as works borrowed from other museums.

Museum of Church History and Art, 45 N. West Temple St.,(801) 240-2299 office, (801) 240-3310 recorded information. Auditorium, reference library, museum store, films, puppet shows, costumed interpreters, audio-tours (English and Spanish), orientation film - all related to the history of the Mormon Church, and the works of Mormon artists, past and present.

The Price Family Holocaust Memorial includes two elements, an exhibition gallery and a memorial garden. The exhibition informs and teaches; the garden inspires and provides space for contemplation. The exhibition is presented on six panels that provide historical information on the rise of Nazism, its impact and consequences, liberation from its tyranny and the aftermath of its destruction. One of the six panels is dedicated to the story of John Price and other Salt Lake City residents whose lives were forever changed by these events.

Abstract and, at the same time, authentic in its materials and images, the garden's elements are provocative. They contain no specific or implicit references to the concentration camps, the Nazi regime or other abuses of war. Instead, the garden is a tribute to the Jewish people and their miraculous story of survival and rebirth.

The memorial is located at the I.J. and Jeanné Wagner Jewish Community Center, 2 North Medical Drive, Salt Lake City, Utah 84113 (across from the University Hospital). Hours vary by season. There is no entrance fee. Call for details, 801-581-0098.

Pioneer Memorial Museum, 300 N Main, (801) 538-1050. Thousands of artifacts from the late 1800's, from carriages, tools, and clothing, to dolls and toys. The stairwells between floors are filled with hundreds of paintings and photographs.

Salt Lake Art Center, 20 S. West Temple St., (801) 328-4201. Guided tours. Changing exhibits of contemporary visual arts, art workshops, performing arts, films, educational programs and art classes for children and adults.

Utah State Historical Society Museum, 300 Rio Grande,(801) 533-3500. Permanent exhibit "Utah at the Crossroads," special exhibits, lectures, book and gift shop.

VISITOR CENTER CLOSED. Will post update on re-opening as information becomes available. Rio Tinto Kennecott Copper Mine offers extensive displays showing mining equipment and history. The mine, the world's largest man-made excavation, is 2 ½ - miles across and ¾ - mile deep - so big it can be seen from outer space. Copper is the primary product but the mine also yields significant quantities of gold, silver and molybdenum.

University of Utah / Salt Lake City

Utah Museum of Fine Arts, 410 Campus Center Drive, Salt Lake City, (801) 581-7332. Permanent collection of approximately 15,000 art objects representing world cultures for the past 5,000 years. Musical concerts, lectures, films, gallery talks. Hours: Tuesday-Friday: 10-5; Wednesday: 10-8; Saturday, Sunday: 11-5. Admission: Adults: $5; Seniors: $3; Youth (6-18): $3.

Natural History Museum of Utah, 301 Wakara Way, Salt Lake City, Utah 84108, (801) 581-4303. Paleontology exhibits include mounted skeletons of Allosaurus, Stegosaurus, and Camptosaurus from the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry, and a fossil mammal exhibit. Extensive collection of artifacts from ancient tribal cultures. Children's hands-on exhibits and art projects.

Springville

Springville Museum of Art, 126 E. 400 South, (801) 489-2727. This is Utah's first and oldest museum of art. Eleven exhibition galleries, sculpture garden, more than 25 separate exhibits mounted annually, and a permanent collection of over 1,000 works by more than 250 artists from Utah and across the nation.

Tooele

Restored Benson Grist Mill, north of Stansbury Park on state route 138, (435) 882-7678. The mill mirrors the past with a log cabin,historic buildings and equipment and a working blacksmith shop. This renovated mill was constructed by early Mormon pioneers and is listed on the National Historic Register.

Tooele County Railroad Museum, 35 N Broadway,(435) 882-2836. A steam engine, dining car, simulated mine, and children's train. Numerous exhibits of the local mining, railroading and smelting history.

Wendover

Historic Wendover Airfield, 345 Airport Apron (Take 100 East headed south off of Wendover Blvd, (435) 665-2308. Visit the most original World War II air base in the USA. A small museum is open Monday through Saturday free of charge in the Flight Operations building. Photographs and dioramas about bomber training in Wendover including the atomic bomb group are featured.
Central Utah

Delta

Great Basin Museum, 328 W. 100 North. Displays cover the rocks and fossils of the west desert, artifacts and interpretation of western culture and history. Video and displays on Topaz, a World War II Japanese internment camp.

Ephraim

Central Utah Art Center, 86 N Main Ephraim, UT; (435) 283-5110. The Central Utah Art Center was created in 1991 when it moved into the newly renovated Ephraim Roller Mill. Currently, the mill is used as a public art space. The CUAC boasts 1700 square feet of exhibition space divided into two galleries. The larger, main gallery hosts 10 shows each year including, one-person exhibitions and a few juried, group shows. In the upstairs gallery, the CUAC sponsors roughly 6 shows annually focusing mainly on small three-dimensional work.

Eureka

Tintic Mining Museum, (435) 433-6842 is located in the historic Eureka City Hall, built in 1899. A library includes Eureka Reporter newspapers from 1902 to 1942, history room, mining artifacts, mineral display, and self-guided tours.

Fairview

Fairview Museum of History and Art, 85 N. 100 East,(435) 427-9216. Historical artifacts, art (sculpture and painting), local historic archive, oral and family history collections, and an extensive Avard Fairbanks sculpture collection.

Fillmore

Territorial Statehouse State Park Museum, 50 W. Capitol St.,(435) 743-5316. Utah's oldest existing governmental building now housing interpretive exhibits on the state's political beginnings.

Spring City

Horseshoe Mountain Pottery, 250 S. Main, is only one of several studios in this small historic town where visitors can look at, and purchase, the work of some of Utah's most talented artisans.

Eastern Utah Museums

Castle Dale

Emery County Pioneer Museum, 96 North 100 East, Castle Dale, Utah (435) 381-5154. A fully stocked mercantile has been re-created with items that early settlers might have purchased. A lawyers office, schoolroom, and typical pioneer home are authentically re-created. Another room displays tools of farmers, ranchers, and coal miners who helped settle the area. An art gallery features local artists.

Museum of the San Rafael, 64 North 100 East, Castle Dale, Utah (435) 381-5252,features a Paleontology Room with life-size dinosaurs which rotate on a central platform. All are dinosaurs that have been discovered in Emery County. Exhibits also consist of Indian culture of the San Rafael area and many valuable Indian artifacts.

Green River

John Wesley Powell River History Museum, 885 E. Main,Green River, Utah (435) 564-3427. River Runners Hall of Fame commemorating men and women who have matched their wits against Utah rivers; includes fascinating replicas of the different kinds of boats used to explore the west's waterways including a unique round hull boat used by the Indians, the primitive rafts used by early day river runners, and the boats and equipment used by present-day explorers and adventurers.

Helper

Western Mining and Railroad Museum, 296 South Main,(435) 472-3009. Gift shop, indoor displays and two outdoor locations that contain a 1917 railroad caboose and mining equipment that dates from early to modern times.

Jensen

Dinosaur National Monument Quarry Visitor Center, twenty miles from Vernal, (435) 789-2115. In-situ exhibit of 1,600 dinosaur bones as they were deposited in a river 145,000,000 years ago; primarily self-guiding tours, and occasional talks given during summer season.

Price

Prehistoric Museum, 155 East Main Street � Price, Utah. From digging to discovery to display, this museum does it all. It offers comprehensive and interpretative exhibits that will inform and entertain. The cell phone tour offered is a great companion to the abundance of information provided in the exhibits.The Hall of Archaeology contains the world-renowned Pilling Figurines and the Huntington Mammoth, hailed as one of the most pristine examples of a Columbian mammoth to date. The Hall of Paleontology is host to a variable parade of skeletal mounts, as well as incredible Observation Labs where the visitor can see dinosaur bones being cleaned of rock or archaeological materials being repaired. Visitors can also speak one on one to the preparators concerning the processes they are witnessing.Children love the Dino Discovery Area, a place to unearth dinosaur bones or search for pottery sherds. This area is also full of other hands-on activities, coloring pages, games, puppets and more.

The Castle Country Regional Information Center (CCRIC) is located in the museum lobby and offers a wide variety of free informational brochures and literature. One of the friendly Information Specialists will be waiting to assist you with all of your information needs. Information Center and Museum Gift Shop are free to the public. Call 435-613-5060 or 800-817-9949 or visit us on the web museum.ceu.edu for current hours of operation and admission fees.

Vernal

Utah Field House of Natural History State Park and Museum, 235 E. Main, (435) 789-3799. Fifteen life-size replicas of prehistoric creatures line the paths of the dinosaur garden. The indoor museum has a large assortment of specimens in anthropology, natural history, geology and paleontology. The collection also features relics of prehistoric and recent Indian residents of the region, fine mineral exhibits, plants and wildlife, fossils, models and reconstructed skeletons of long-vanished species.

Western Heritage Museum, 300 E 200 South, (435) 789-7399. Western artifacts; turn-of-the century displays, including blacksmith shop, drug store, barber shop, country store, and machinery shop;Leo C. Thorne prehistoric and historic Indian collection; gift shop;art exhibits; outdoor exhibit of horse-drawn vehicles from the 1800s to early 1900s.

Southwestern Utah Museums

Cedar City

Braithwaite Fine Arts Gallery, Southern Utah University, 351 W. Center St., (435) 586-5432. Changing exhibits of national and Utah artists on a monthly schedule.

Iron Mission State Park and Museum, 585 North Main,(435) 586-9290. The story of development in Iron County. A diorama, based on descriptions of the original iron foundry, is on display. Displays also include a collection of horse-drawn vehicles used from 1870 to 1930; some 200 Indian relics, including articles of clothing, hunting weapons, and food processing tools.

Bryce

The Paunsaugunt Wildlife Museum, 1945 W. Scenic Byway 12, Bryce, UT, 435-834-5555, Open April 1 - November 15. Newest Attraction In The Bryce Canyon National Park Area. The Paunsaugunt Wildlife Museum is one of the finest museums in the Western United States featuring wildlife from around the world, Indian artifacts, birds of prey, the finest butterfly collection in North America with over 1,400 butterflies, bugs, ocean fish, western antiques and live fallow deer.

St. George

Rosenbruch World Wildlife Museum and Gift Shop. Exhibits include over 200 species of wildlife from around the world displayed in a nature setting, extensive world bug collection, children's petting room, and art gallery. 1835 Convention Center Drive, St. George, UT 84790. Hours: Monday 12 noon to 9 pm. Tuesday-Saturday 10 am to 6 pm. Closed Sundays.

St. George Art Museum, 175 East 200 North, (435) 674-4256. The St. George Art Museum hosts a variety of rotating exhibitions each year, displaying works of many media, including national traveling exhibitions, regional and local art, as well as special exhibits from the museum's growing permanent collection. Renovated from a 1930s beet seed storage facility, the Art Museum retains its original wood beam framing and provides a pioneer ambiance for enjoyment of the arts. The Museum's Family Discovery Center offers artistic and educational opportunities for children, making the it a family-friendly place to visit.

Southeastern Utah

Blanding

Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum is a world-class museum of Native American culture, a Prehistoric Puebloan (Anasazi) village, and an archaeological repository. View the largest collection of prehistoric Puebloan pottery on display in the four corners region, climb into a kiva and discover both ancient and contemporary Native American cultural traditions. 660 West 400 North, Blanding, Utah 84511-4000; 435-678-2238

The Dinosaur Museum of Blanding, 754 South 200 West,(435) 678-3454. Features realistic, life sized dinosaur sculptures, skeletons, paintings, and fossil displays. The museum also contains a History Hall of Hollywood Dinosaur Movies with movie memorabilia from the silent classics all the way through the high tech dinosaurs of today's cinema. Paleontology exhibits complete the collection including dinosaur eggs and fossilized dinosaur skin.

Moab

Dan O'Laurie Museum of Moab traces the history of the Moab, Utah, area from the dinosaurs and early ancients, 1800's exploration, and through the mining era. Summer hours are Monday - Friday 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Saturday and Sunday noon to 6:00 pm. Winter hours are Monday - Friday 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday noon to 5:00 p.m. Address: 118 East Center Street, Moab, Utah 84532. 435-259-7985.

Monticello

The Historic Barn Museum on Main Street houses exhibits representing the cultural and ethnic history of this community.

For additional information on Utah Museums, or a complete museum listing contact the Utah Office of Museum Services, 300 Rio Grande Street, SLC, 84101. 801-533-3592.