Museo Comunitario Kumíaí

Small museum focused on the entire Tecate municipality, not just the Kumiai community. Three buildings in total: one focused on the Kumiai, with bilingual screens, one on old Tecate, and one on the railroad and Rancho La Puerta. The Rancho La Puerta display is very professional, but the museum is very small and several of the exhibits are of poor quality.

The Tecate Community Museum is a history and culture museum that introduces visitors to the history of the Tecate area. It is only three years old and continues to grow.
There are a couple of highlights and the most complete exhibit is a wonderful history of the Kumiai (Kumeyaay) Indians that used to live in the area. Housed in a domed room with awesome acoustics that they call the Cavern of Ancestors. In this room they explore what they call the «pre-​hostoric» era and it focuses on the flora, fauna, natural features of the land and then the Kumiai people and how they lived, ate, interacted, and the handmade items they created. You could actually spend about an hour in there and everything is in both English and Spanish and includes computer and video exhibits as well as some artifacts.
There is a model of a traditional Kumiai home in the style after Europeans arrived and also a botanical garden that provides examples of native plants.
There is a house that is considered the «historical» period and it includes examples of furniture, photographs, equipment, household goods, etc. It is a start, but can use some work and they have room to grow in there.
The third exhibit is considered the «contemporary» period and is a new building that is still under construction. The first floor however is partially set up as a exhibit of the railroad. It’s REALLY well done, especially for not being finished and interesting! This is the second highlight of the museum.
There is also a gift shop with kind of a weird mish-​mash of stuff, but I bought some jewelry with the excuse that I was helping to assist the community since I had free tour! there are restrooms on site and they do sell bottles of cold beverages in the gift shop. They also take credit cards in the gift shop.
The museum is really nice and probably more focused towards kids and school groups, but we enjoyed it and probably would have enjoyed it even more if it weren’t over 100 degrees at the time! it’s located right next to the awesome sports complex. Recommended!