12 Museums to Explore in Maricopa County

The Arizona Commemorative Air Force Museum, a.k.a. Airbase Arizona Aircraft Museum, was established in 1978, in Falcon Field in Mesa, Arizona. It is the 10th unit of the Commemorative Air Force and the home of one of the largest Commemorative Air Force units in the world. On exhibit are World War II artifacts, helicopters and classic American and foreign combat planes, many of which are the last remaining warbirds of their kinds.

The Arizona Museum of Natural History is the only natural history museum in the greater Phoenix area and is located in Mesa, Arizona. It exhibits the natural and cultural history of the Southwestern United States.

The Arizona State Capitol is located in Phoenix, Arizona and was the last home for Arizona's Territorial government until 1912. The three branches of state government initially occupied the four floors of the statehouse. As the state expanded, the branches relocated to adjacent buildings and additions. The 1901 portion of the Capitol is now maintained as part of the Arizona Capitol Museum with a focus on history and culture. The re-opened library from 1938 occupies part of this museum as well.

The Arizona State University Art Museum is an art museum operated by Arizona State University, located on its main campus in Tempe, Arizona. The Art Museum has some 12,000 objects in its permanent collection and describes its primary focuses as contemporary art, including new media and "innovative methods of presentation"; crafts, with an emphasis on American ceramics; historic and contemporary prints.

The National Historical Fire Foundation is a museum dedicated to the historical preservation of firefighting equipment used throughout the years around the world. Its artifacts were originally the private collection of George F. Getz Jr which has five large exhibit galleries.

McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park is a 40-acre railroad park located in Scottsdale, Arizona. It features a 15 in gauge railroad, a Magma Arizona Railroad locomotive, a railroad museum, three model railroad clubs and a 7 1⁄2 in gauge live steam railroad.

The Mesa Arts Center is a performing and visual arts complex in downtown Mesa, Arizona. At more than 210,000 square feet square feet, the $95 million facility, completed in 2005, is the largest comprehensive arts campus in the state which encompasses four performance venues

The Musical Instrument Museum is located in Phoenix, Arizona. It is the largest museum of its type in the world. The collection of over 15,000 musical instruments and associated objects includes examples from nearly 200 countries and territories, representing every inhabited continent. Some larger countries such as the United States, Mexico, India, China, and Brazil have multiple displays with subsections for different types of ethnic, folk, and tribal music.

Mystery Castle is located in the city of Phoenix, Arizona, in the foothills of South Mountain Park. It was built in the 1930s by Boyce Luther Gulley for his daughter Mary Lou Gulley. The sprawling 18-room, three story castle is built from a wide range of materials — stone, adobe, automobile parts, salvaged rail tracks from a mine, telephone poles, etc. It features a chapel, cantina, and a dungeon.

The Phoenix Art Museum is the largest museum for visual art in the southwest United States. Located in Phoenix, Arizona, the museum is 285,000 square feet. It displays international exhibitions alongside its comprehensive collection of more than 18,000 works of American, Asian, European, Latin American, Western American, modern and contemporary art, and fashion design.

Pueblo Grande Ruin and Irrigation Sites are pre-Columbian archaeological sites and ruins, located in Phoenix, Arizona. They include a prehistoric platform mound and irrigation canals. The City of Phoenix manages these resources as the Pueblo Grande Museum Archaeological Park. It features a large platform mound with retaining walls. This massive structure contains over 20,000 cubic meters of fill. There were also many dwellings, and at least three ball courts and more.

Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West is located in Old Town Scottsdale, Arizona on the former site of the Loloma Transit Station , and opened in January 2015. The two-story, 43,000-square-foot museum features the art, culture and history of 19 states in the American West, including Arizona. According to museum Director Mike Fox, “We are not a museum of objects, but a museum of ideas.”