Governor Bent Museum

Save your $ 3 admission charge, and skip this sad little «museum.»
The day we visited, the place was being staffed by an elderly man who seemed annoyed that we interrupted his newspaper reading.
After he took our admission, he wandered into the rooms (adjoining the front room) to switch on the lights.
This dusty old building and its odd artifacts need a major upgrade.

Small and forgettable museum, which is kind of sad. Governor Bent was quite the martyr and from what I’ve read, seemed to want to be a good leader but instead was killed by locals who didn’t want to be ruled by a white man.
The shop is small and interesting but the museum didn’t seem to be worth the effort.

This museum is in the small house of Gov. Charles Bent, head of the U.S. Territory of New Mexico in 1847 when the Natives of the Taos Pueblo killed him here (the US Military responded with a brutal attack on the pueblo). Several of the artifacts in the museum relate to Bent, but as you wind through the four small rooms, this theme loses coherence. There are abundant artifacts that post-​date Bent… an ostrich egg… a lamb with eight legs (worth seeing!)… finally, a chair that Bent supposedly gifted to Kit Carson. Nice chair, and comfortable. But is the story believable? This museum gets one star for just being a museum, and one more for having cheap admission ($ 3 for adults, $ 1 for kids 8 – 12), but it could use a major overhaul.