Desiderio Torres Regional Museum

Secretaría de Turismo de Sarmiento

Situated in the old railway station within the Valle de los Gigantes venue, you will be able to visit Desiderio Torres Museum that ows its name to an old native inhabitant who is mentioned by Francisco Pietrobielli ( founder of the colony) as an upright man. The first settlers also remind him dearly since he helped them in more than once.

    The museum, opened in 1973 keeps evidence of those who reigned in this Patagonic land and accompanies the real history of this Parish.
    It keeps many lithic works and heads of arrows as well as works made of bones, harpoons, needles, pottery and ritual works of art.

    You will come across a beautiful and original tehuelche fur blanket made up of fur and feathers of ostriches which is a unique pice donated by an old Welsh family.
    There is a Center of Native Weaving, where , apart from that, tehuelche drawings, ribs and symbols are recovered in pottery works.
    Dlesiderio Torres Museum takes us to the labyrinth of time allowing us to travel around our past.

    ¤ Paleontologic Room¤

    Extraordinary original pieces of dinosaurs found in this region make up the heritage of this area due to an afreement of colaboration and return signed in 1994 between the Department of Paleovertebrates of San Juan Bosco Patagonia National University and Sarmiento Town Council.
    There are ribs of a gigantic saurian as well as humerus, femurs, vertebraes , nails, etcetera. All of them are approximately 90 million years old. There are also pieces of eggs, a Pleistocene articulated snake which is 1.000.000 years old, etcetera.

    ¤Achaeological Room ¤

    You will find important evidence of disappeared cultures ( Tehuelche and Mapuche) settled in Sarmiento Valley and its surroundings.

The heritage belonging to these cultures is made up of 24.000 pieces being shown around 16.000. They provide a lithic material which is extremely interesting- the pieces shown in this room take us 10.000 years back in time. This collection is made up of heads of arrows of different materials, amulets, buttons, pieces of vases, location plans, pipes, needles, etcetera.

    ¤Colonists Room¤

    You can contemplate an important phtographic collection that gives testimony of the beginning and development of the first years - elements, letters, documents, furniture belonging to the old settlers.
    There is a unique richess in the museum- the first hoisted flag which was made up with a blanket and having a painted sun with saturation technique. The dye was extracted from the roots of calafate and native women made the painting.
    There is also a Center of Native Weaving where the exciting job of recovering the techniques of making different weaves, dying and spinning takes place.

    ¤Pottery¤

    A display in the Center of Regional Culture shows us a varied and extremely interesting collection of pieces made up of regional clay. These are works made with love and respect to our preceding culture.
    The Head Office of Desiderio Torres Museum will soon move to the old railway station building, in order to make up an area that will include a Touristic Information Office, a communication boulevard, a shopping area of regional products, the Paleontologic Museum and an interpretative room of the Petrified Wood.

    Fotos: Secretaría de Turismo de Sarmiento