A part of the New Mexico State University, The Zuhl Museum is both an art gallery and a natural history museum. It is the home of the Zuhl Collection with more than 1,800 rare specimens of fossils, petrified wood, and minerals. The collection was gifted to the university by Herb and Joan Zuhl. Most specimens are on display in the Zuhl Museum, the Zuhl Library, and Gardiner Hall, in the Department of Geological Sciences. Most of the collection is composed of pieces of petrified wood, from a few centimeters long twigs to logs over a meter in diameter.
Some of them are millions of years old, and Zuhls called them “souls of the tree.” Of Zuhl's collection of minerals and rocks collected from all over the world, the most impressive are specimens of malachite, rhodochrosite, and reutilized quartz. They range from a few centimeters to almost a meter in diameter. The Zuhl collection contains a number of fossils of animals from all over the world, and it includes corals, trilobites, ammonites, fishes, and insects.
775 College Dr, Las Cruces, NM 88003-1204, Phone: 575-646-4714
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