A museum with a difference, at the Witte you'll find science explained in a tree-house, tall tales from Texan cowboys and a pair of dinosaur superstars.
San Antonio's Witte Museum does things a little differently. Rather than restricting itself to just one theme for exploration, it does them all. So you'll find an enthralling dinosaur museum, an intriguing living history heritage centre and a riveting science centre. The one thing that links them all together is South Texas – and its landscape, history and people. It's a great way to delve deeply into the many fascinating aspects of this storied land.
The Witte Museum came about from an act of philanthropy by a San Antonio businessman, Alfred Witte, in the 1920s. It's located on the edge of San Antonio's central park, the Brackenridge, backing onto the San Antonio River. The original 1926 buildings have been substantially expanded and added to – most dramatically at the H-E-B Science Treehouse.
This whimsical flagstone building of turrets, spires and arches is home to a dazzling array of exciting interactive science exhibits. It connects to a two-storey treehouse, over a narrow bridge, and won awards for its designers when it was built in 1998. Inside you'll find a host of displays to engage and stimulate the mind. In contrast, on the outside it's the body being stimulated. There's a rock-climbing wall, a water-works play area and a vertigo-inducing Skycycle.
The South Texas Heritage Centre is another recent addition. As well as displaying the relics and artefacts of South Texas' cowboy and ranching past, you'll get a chance to hear the stories of the period in the 1850s when Texas was the 'wild south'. So you can speak to a diverse bunch of characters from the era – from settlers, ranchers and chilli queens, to oil men, Comanche Indians, and outlaws – many of whom will put on demonstrations for you.
Dinosaurs are what put the Witte Museum on the map: it was once known as the San Antonio Dinosaur Museum. The two stand-outs are a pair of dinosaur skeletons, which may well have faced-off against each other 65 million years ago – a horned Triceratops and the ferocious Tyrannosaurus Rex. The Museum often hosts travelling exhibitions of dinosaurs – or the 'Vanished Texans', as the Museum calls them.
There are many other facets covered by the Witte: the costumes of South America, the art of the Texan cowboys, mummies of Ancient Egypt and the wildlife of South Texas being just some. With a varied programme of travelling exhibitions, one thing you're guaranteed at the Witte Museum, is not to run out of things to see and do.
