$3.5M renovation of Fort Bliss Museums complex to help tell multiple stories

Daniel Perez
·6 min read
Fort Bliss Museums Director Michael MacDonald is in charge of a $3.5 million renovation project that will modernize and consolidate three post museums under one roof. He called museums three-dimensional textbooks that allow people to make a personal connection with what they see.
Fort Bliss Museums Director Michael MacDonald is in charge of a $3.5 million renovation project that will modernize and consolidate three post museums under one roof. He called museums three-dimensional textbooks that allow people to make a personal connection with what they see.

A closet “history nerd” with El Paso roots said he fell into a 25-year museum career. His latest job is to direct a $3.5 million redesign of the Fort Bliss Museums that will tell the stories of three institutions when it reopens in July 2025.

Michael MacDonald, the post’s museums director, took the job in September 2021. His marching orders from the U.S. Army Center of Military History, or CMH, were to oversee the renovation to the museum complex, 1735 Marshall Road, which will be home to the Fort Bliss Museum, the 1st Armored Division Museum and the U.S. Army Museum of the Noncommissioned Officer.

The museum facility was open on a limited basis from 2020 to 2022 due to the pandemic and a serious roof issue that has been fixed. MacDonald used that downtime to review and refine the scripts and exhibit designs to give them a greater historical focus. The project went out to bid this summer and was awarded in September to Atlanta-based Building Four Fabrication.

MacDonald said the fresh perspective will fulfill the museum’s goals to train and educate soldiers about the history and legacy of the Army and their institutions. The exhibits will tell soldiers what they need to know about the accomplishments of the post, the division and the NCO corps in ways that should build esprit de corps among the soldiers at every rank.

“Museums are three-dimensional textbooks that people can visit to see the things that they usually only hear about,” said the director, who hoped that his museums would attract members of the military and civilian communities. “They allow people to make a personal connection.”

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Here are some preliminary ideas to showcase a Dodge touring car, one of five presented to then Brig. Gen. John Pershing while he was stationed at Fort Bliss. Museum officials said it is possible that the car was among those that were part of the Punitive Expedition into Mexico in 1916. Images of Pershing, top, and then Lt. George Patton, one of Pershing’s aides, are part of the presentation. The car is under plastic during the $3.5 million renovation at the Fort Bliss Museums.

The exhibits will involve items from the museum’s collections that include artifacts that represent the history and evolution of each institution. Additionally, the museum plans to use high-resolution prints of items from the National Archives, the Library of Congress and the National Portrait Gallery, as well as the El Paso Museum of Art and the University of Texas at El Paso’s library.

Among the museum’s new pieces that excite MacDonald are a World War II-era Panzer III tank that may have been part of Germany’s North Africa campaign. Post staff are restoring the tank.

Another item that thrilled the director was the large model of the USS Constitution, the wooden-hulled frigate that saw action during the War of 1812. The ship earned the nickname “Old Ironsides” because British cannonballs bounced off its sides, which were made of oak.

When the original commander of the 1st Armored Division wanted a nickname for his new detachment in 1940, he came across a poster requesting donations to help restore the Constitution. He liked the ship’s nickname because it correlated with armor and usurped it for his division.

As MacDonald spoke about this project in his museum office, contractors took measurements within the cavernous complex to make sure they would erect the new walls in the right places. The building, which opened as a Post Exchange in 1971 and became a museum 30 years later, is 110,558 square feet. About 90% of it will be gallery space. Tank displays will take up about 20,000 square feet. That does not count the existing tank and helicopter park in front of the building.

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The 1st Armored Division used the M60A3 as its main battle tank during the Cold War era. It is located in a storage area in the rear of the Fort Bliss Museums building.
The 1st Armored Division used the M60A3 as its main battle tank during the Cold War era. It is located in a storage area in the rear of the Fort Bliss Museums building.

While discussing the museum’s journey, its director also reflected on his own. Born in Michigan and raised for a time in New Jersey, MacDonald’s family moved to Northeast El Paso in 1971. He would venture into the desert east of Railroad Drive where he collected shards of Native American pottery and bullet casings from past military exercises.

He enjoyed visits to museums around the city to include those at the post. Family vacations frequently included stops at museums. He joined the Navy after high school and read a lot of history books while aboard his ships. After 10 years of military service, he enrolled at the University of Texas at El Paso and earned a bachelor’s degree in history in 1998. He wanted to work in the museum field, but thought those jobs were for people with more education.

After a few post-graduation archaeological survey jobs, he applied and was hired as an archivist with a railroad museum in Temple, Texas. His next stop was as a museum technician at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Texas. He eventually became the library’s deputy director. Seeking a change, he applied for the Fort Bliss Museums job.

MacDonald said the CMH hired him because of his ability to manage a museum and people, and his familiarity with federal policies and regulations, as well as his previous experience with the multimillion-dollar redesign at the LBJ library.

“Fortunately, my lack of knowledge of Army history was not a requirement for the position,” said a laughing MacDonald, who also is in charge of the White Sands Missile Range Museum about 70 miles north of the post.

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Frank J. Siltman, the CMH western region chief of museums, praised MacDonald for the fresh insights and leadership he has brought to this project that involves the modernization and consolidation of different museums to better manage the collections and maximize their human resources.

“A lot of work has gone into the structure thanks to the garrison command, and the final product will be a tremendous addition to Fort Bliss and the El Paso community,” Siltman said as part of an email interview.

John Hamilton, Fort Bliss Museums director from 2015 to 2017, said that the museum was due for structural and cosmetic upgrades as well as enhanced exhibits. He said the new museums will allow visitors to learn much more about the three institutions from their origins to the modern era.

“Exhibits will be modernized with better lighting and solid storylines,” Hamilton said in an email. “More tanks and vehicles will be refurbished including some that exist nowhere else in the Army.”

Hamilton, who is familiar with the renovation plans, said there will be some interactive exhibits as well as space for training, receptions and educational activities. One holdover from the former museum, which officially closed Sept. 5, will be the 170-seat auditorium with sound and projection systems.

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This is a horse-drawn ambulance wagon used at Fort Bliss during World War I, 1914-18. It is located in a storage area in the rear of the Fort Bliss Museums building.
This is a horse-drawn ambulance wagon used at Fort Bliss during World War I, 1914-18. It is located in a storage area in the rear of the Fort Bliss Museums building.

The former director, who also is president of the Fort Bliss Historical Association, said the fresh exhibits will increase museum visitation “enormously.”

“This will be a showcase for El Paso’s and the Army’s military history, which is rich and varied,” Hamilton said. “I think this will be a premier attraction for soldiers and their families, veterans, and the El Paso public in general.”

MacDonald called the museum complex part of the post’s welcome mat to the community. The museums and Freedom Crossing, the post’s collection of public shops and eateries, allow the public to see life on a military post, which is an enigma to many El Pasoans.

“Through us, the public will get to know these institutions,” MacDonald said.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: New museum exhibits to highlight history of Fort Bliss