Becoming Texas: Our Story Begins Here

Witness more than 16,000 years of Texas history

In December 2018, the Bullock Texas State History Museum will unveil the state's most comprehensive look at more than 16,000 years of Texas History with the permanent exhibition Becoming Texas: Our Story Begins Here. The exhibition explores the people and events that shaped Texas long before its famous boundaries or name appeared on maps. Covering more than 9,000 square feet of exhibition space, Becoming Texas features hundreds of one-of-a-kind artifacts that tell the story of daily life in Texas over thousands of years.

Featured artifacts include:

A stone projectile point dating to more than 16,000 years ago that challenges our ideas of when humans arrived in Texas.
A large-scale case featuring hundreds of artifacts showing the variety of items found on board the shipwreck La Belle.
A santo (religious figurine) of St. Francis that bridged language barriers between the Spanish and Native American groups.
A 250-year-old pair of mission gates on view together for the first time after extensive conservation work.
An original American copy of the Adams-Onís Treaty that shaped the state's borders.

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One of the earliest known objects created by humans in the Americas, this stone projectile point changes our understanding of when humans began living on the land we now call Texas.

Press Releases

Exhibition exploring early inhabitants of Texas unveiled at Texas State History Museum

December 10, 2018 (Austin, Texas) -- The Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin, Texas, unveiled today a groundbreaking and comprehensive original exhibition that utilizes the most contemporary research to reconsider when the story of Texas began. Becoming Texas: Our Story Begins Here explores more than 16,000 years of history on the land we now call Texas. View Press Release

12/06/2018 Bullock Museum exhibition features Treaty from National Archives that shaped Texas borders

10/30/2018 Bullock Museum restores rare Spanish Colonial mission gate from San Antonio

10/04/2018 St. Francis Santo going on view for the first time in centuries

08/16/2018 Largest cache of French colonial artifacts on display for the first time

07/19/2018 A small stone artifact opens a new chapter in the story of Texas

In The News

The Future of America's Past: Lines in the Sand

8/15/2019, KLRU/PBS -- Texas has long been a place of contentious borders and cross-cultural exchange. Six national flags have flown over Texas since the 1500s, starting with European contests for the land that followed 10,000 years of Native American history there. From Spanish missions, to a French shipwreck, to a former sugarcane plantation, we visit to ask: How did Texas become Texas? View Article

Texas Day by Day

3/19/2020, Michael Barnes / Austin American Statesman -- View Article

#TBT: Sunken in Matagorda Bay 300 years ago, 'La Belle' rises in new interactive way

3/18/2020, John-Carlos Estrada / CBS Austin -- The ship "La Belle" went down off Texas gulf coast 300 years ago. But she's rising again at the Bullock Texas State History Museum. View Article

As Nature Claims Shipwrecks, Historians Can Only Watch

4/16/2019, Michael Marks / Texas Standard -- Pieces of wrecked ships from as far back as the 17th century can still be found on Texas shores, but these relics are getting more scarce as nature takes its toll. View Article

Becoming Texas exhibit at Bullock Museum

1/7/2019, Tierra Neubaum / FOX 7 Austin -- The Bullock Texas State History Museum recently unveiled an exhibit focusing on the story behind the beginning of Texas and exploring 16,000 years of history on the land we now call the Lone Star State. View Article

Bullock Museum Exhibition Features Treaty That Shaped Texas Borders

12/6/2018, Spectrum News Austin -- The Bullock Texas State History Museum will display the original American copy of the Adams-Onís Treaty on loan from the United States National Archives. View Article

Bullock Museum restores rare Spanish Colonial mission gate from San Antonio

10/30/2018, The Comanche Chief -- View Article

With overhauled exhibits, the Bullock Texas State History Museum steps into the 21st century

2/2/2019, Michael Barnes / Austin American Statesman -- View Article