Arizona Museum of Natural History, Natural history museum in Downtown Mesa, United States

The Arizona Museum of Natural History occupies a 1937 WPA-funded building in Mesa that once housed the city hall, courts, library and fire department. Its roughly 74,000 square feet include Dinosaur Hall, with a Tarbosaurus skeleton and a Tyrannosaurus rex skull, and Dinosaur Mountain, a three-story indoor waterfall with animatronic dinosaurs and a flash flood that runs every 30 minutes.

Founded in 1977 as the Mesa Southwest Museum, it opened in Mesa's 1937 city hall, a Lescher & Mahoney building erected with WPA funds that had housed the courts, library, police and fire departments. Wings were added in 1983, 1987 and 2000, and a research facility in 1995. It was renamed the Arizona Museum of Natural History in 2007.

The Native Cultures gallery displays artwork and objects from regional indigenous communities, showing visitors how these traditions were lived and expressed through daily practices. The collection reflects the beliefs and skills that shaped life across the desert region for centuries.

The building is accessible for visitors of all ages and includes interactive areas to explore at your own pace. Allow several hours to see all the galleries without rushing through them.

The three-story indoor waterfall at Dinosaur Mountain runs a flash-flood display every 30 minutes, and a life-size Pteranodon sternbergi sculpture by Ed Mack hangs above it. Elsewhere, a 4-foot mechanical pterosaur built by volunteer Don Puffer, called "Clam Digger", opens and closes its wings.