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El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro extends more than 1,800 miles from Mexico City to San Juan Pueblo in present-day New Mexico. Formally established as a road in 1598 by Juan de Onate, the Camino Real played a critical role in sustaining the commerce of settlements and mines in Nueva Vizcaya as well as the missions, presidios, and colonial settlements of New Mexico. It became a dynamic agent of change that altered the history, population, ecology, and economy of northern Mexico and the southwestern United States.

Designed by Enrique Norten, one of Mexico's leading architects, the state-of-the-art visitor center will foster an appreciation of the area's rich cultural heritage. Exhibits will explore the nature of the Southwest before the coming of the Spanish in the 16th century; conquest and conversion in the 17th century; settlement and trade patterns of the 18th century; and the new realities brought about by the 1821 Mexican revolution, the American conquest of 1848, and the Indian Wars of the latter 19th century.