The SMU-in-Taos campus is situated on the site of a pre-Civil War United States Army post, known then
as Cantonment Burgwin, which was built in 1852. The post was abandoned in 1860 and fell to ruin.
In 1956, work began to excavate and reconstruct the cantonment. The 1957 reconstructed Fort Burgwin
included a room designated “the library” within the main compound. In 2004 a state-of-the-art
computer facility and library, the Fred Wendorf Information Commons, was constructed.
The Fort Burgwin Library, a unit of Central University Libraries, serves the information needs of students and faculty in the SMU-in-Taos program. The library contains approximately 9,000 books and a small collection of journals and maps. The collection, closely tailored to the Taos curriculum, focuses on the history, literature, cultures, and environment of New Mexico and neighboring states in the Southwest. Books and journals in the Fort Library are included in the SMU Libraries database.
© Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas.
